Defining Standards, Style, and Systems for a Growing Online Program

Concurrent Session 10
Leadership

Session Materials

Brief Abstract

As our online program continues to grow, the need for standardization, consistency, and smooth design, development, and quality assurance processes continues to increase as well. This presentation documents our ongoing journey as we strive to balance the needs of our rapidly-growing online program with the needs of faculty, designers, and, most importantly, learners.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Enoch Hunsaker, Brigham Young University - Online

Co-presenter: Eric Orton, Brigham Young University

Eric Orton is an instructional designer with BYU's Division of Continuing Education, working on BYU Online semester-based courses. He previously worked in instructional design and faculty development at both Boise State University and the University of Iowa. He holds a B.S. in Elementary Education from BYU and a Master’s in Instructional Technology from Utah State University. Outside of work, Eric can be found hitting softballs, hunting and fishing, or skiing, depending on the season.

Additional Authors

Joel Hemingway, Brigham Young University

I am currently working as a Senior Instructional Designer for Brigham Young University. I have been building online/blended courses for 14 years.

Extended Abstract

In this interactive presentation, we will showcase our design problem, process, products, and practices.  As an attendee, you will have lots of opportunities to

  • Ask questions about our processes and solutions

  • Share what you have done to address similar problems

  • Review actual documents that may help you to implement similar solutions at your organization.

  • Learn from our mistakes and successes in improving course quality.

 

More Details:

The Problem:  We will begin by describing the impetus behind our standardization initiative: continued and exponential growth, unprecedented diversity in the freshman class, institutional branding and inclusivity initiatives, quality concerns from departmental clients, etc.

The Process: We will discuss 

  • the approach we took to ensure alignment between our online course standards and research-based best practices.  

  • the choices leading to the formation of our Standards & Processes committee.

  • procedures we followed to gain buy-in and approval from multiple stakeholders

  • obstacles and roadblocks to our progress

  • how our process changed over time.

The Product: We will share screenshots and/or URLs to the documentation we created to address the design problem. These include course design standards, a course style guide, common course documentation, an evaluation rubric, etc.

Our Practices:  We will discuss additional steps we have taken to implement and improve the quality of courses at our organization, including a designer vision summit, ongoing data-driven designer training, collaboration with other universities, and the ongoing evolution of the course review process.