From Foundation to Implementation: Giving Instructional Designers the Tools to Support Faculty in the Pursuit of Quality

Concurrent Session 4
Streamed Session

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Session Materials

Brief Abstract

Online and Blended quality review initiatives require detailed processes, documentation, and guides to succeed. This presentation will discuss the strategic network of support created for instructional designers, faculty, and support teams to champion for the online and blended Quality and High Quality Course review initiative at a large university.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Alyssa Albrecht, University of Central Florida

Alyssa has been a Knight since 2008 when she started her undergraduate degree at UCF. Upon graduating with her BS in psychology, she became a middle school language arts teacher, which continued to grow her love for education. While teaching, she realized her passion for online learning, which prompted her to pursue her MA in Instructional Design and Technology at UCF with a focus on eLearning. Before completing her MA, she interned with the Center for Distributed Learning during the summer of 2017 and was subsequently offered a position as an instructional designer. Her research interests include quality in online courses, active learning, online engagement, and Faculty/ID collaboration. In her spare time, Alyssa enjoys spending time with her friends and family at Disney, traveling, and reading.

Co-presenter: Nancy Swenson, University of Central Florida

Nancy Swenson has a MA degree in Educational Technology from the University of Central Florida. She has a B.S from Florida International University in Business Education. Nancy has worked at the Center for Distributed Learning at UCF as an Instructional Designer since 2000. Prior to working at UCF, she taught business education classes in the public school system for 13 years. She has also worked as an adjunct with Florida Virtual School, Valencia Community College, and the University of Central Florida. Her online teaching and learning research interests include usability, accessibility of online education, quality of online courses, and universal design for learning. Nancy has presented on similar topics at a variety of conferences including: EDUCAUSE, EDUCAUSE Southeast, SLOAN-Consortium International Conference on Online Learning, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) Webinar, and Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) Annual Conference, and Accessing Higher Ground, Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference (CSUN)

Co-presenter: Nicole Stahl, University of Central Florida

Extended Abstract

With the creation of the Florida State University System 2025 Strategic Plan for Online Education, universities across the state began to mobilize review processes to ensure that online courses being offered were well designed to meet the students’ needs. These steps towards quality assurance set a formalized review into motion to ensure that the expectations that had long been pursued in the online and blended courses offered to students were being met. 

Through the creation of a formalized process, a Quality Initiative was formed to plan, create, and implement Quality and High Quality reviews, for both online and blended courses offered at the university. As the initiative grew in demand at the university, it became clear that providing support and guidance to those teams involved would be necessary for consistency and clarity. 

In this Education Session, the presentation will cover a summary of the strategic networks created to support Instructional Designers, faculty, and support teams to effectively carry out the Quality Initiative.  Over a period of five years, the Quality Taskforce incrementally designed, developed, and implemented these targeted areas of need: 

  • A Quality Companion course was created to document the Quality and High Quality processes, as well as support the Instructional Designers as they conduct these reviews. 

  • A High Quality training course was created for faculty to educate and support them through the review process as they reviewed their own course as part of the High Quality process. 

  • To track and archive in-progress and earned designations, multiple updates were made to the department’s internal reporting system to adequately document these designations as well as support the Instructional Designers when reaching out to their faculty. The reporting system also had to be updated to support stagnant reviews, as well as future expiring designations.

  • To help incentivize the Instructional Designers in conducting and offering these opt-in faculty course review requests, milestone rewards and a department-recognized individual award were implemented to recognize the efforts and contributions the Instructional Designers have made towards this initiative. Digital badges and letters are also awarded to faculty who receive a designation. 

The presentation seeks to engage the audience in a collaborative discussion to share ideas to help participants who participate in their own quality initiatives. Through the growth we have made during this five year period, we will be able to share our lessons learned for those who may be starting out or seeking to refresh their own professional development offerings. Participants will be provided with the Creative-Commons licensed quality and high quality rubrics, as well as links to the Quality Initiative website.