Procedure to Develop an Online Course

These are the steps that the faculty must complete to meet the policy requirements:

1. Complete the Intent to Teach an Online Course.

This form is required to indicate development plans, document training and sign off on final deployment. The instructor will need to complete the form with the signatures of the chair and dean. Please have faculty return this form to me as soon as possible. Note: The instructor does not need to submit this form every semester, but we do need it on file.

2. Obtain training or document training received.

There are 12 core workshops required for teaching an online or hybrid course. These workshops are listed on the Intent form. Faculty may have already met some or all of the training at BSU or elsewhere, although not all external training will be accepted based on Bowie requirements. Some sessions are new based on our recent transition to Blackboard. Training is available at every Faculty Institute and throughout the semester. We also offer our summer institute at the beginning of June. Of course, we are also happy to work with departments to deliver training or individual faculty.

3. Develop or re-develop the course.

The development shell contains a template that is pre-populated with content based on the Quality Matters rubric. For example, we have already included technology requirements, links to plugins, etc. There are places for faculty to define policies specific to them (e.g., communication, grading, etc.) and we have also created the module structure for the instructional content. A checklist, QM rubric and annotated QM rubric are provided as reference. A full semester is required to develop a course before it is delivered; faculty may not develop and teach the newly proposed online course at the same time.

4. Recruit the peer review team.

The course must be reviewed to ensure it meets design specifications. We use the Exemplary Course Rubric, which is based on the Quality Matters standards. (We do not review an active course shell and thus do not comment on instruction.) A peer review team consists of instructor/developer, a subject matter expert from within the department, a peer reviewer from within the college and an instructional designer. Together, we review a course as if we are students and provide faculty with feedback regarding any areas of improvement. The instructor worksheet helps the peer review team understand specific choices and strategies within the course. The process takes about 3 weeks.

All forms and documents mentioned above, along with the BSU Online policy, may be downloaded here:
https://www.box.com/s/awvqyswce30fninso9wc

Academic Computing realizes that faculty may need support so we are available to upload content and test banks, configure the grade center, install publisher content, etc. We do request a meeting, however, to review the support needs so we can provide better and more efficient service. This meeting may take the form of an on-campus visit, a web conference, or phone call.