Faculty 411 Essential Design Standards for Online Instruction

Essential Design Standards for Online Learning

CCC Essential Design Standards Version 2.0 is released (Feb. 2024)!

This set of 23 standards is based on the Essential Standards of Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric, Seventh Edition. The purpose of this checklist is to guide faculty designing online or hybrid courses, and it can be used as an informal review checklist.

Reviewers or self-reviewers using the CCC Essential Design Standards should please:

Examine each Standard using the evidence examples and explanations.
Using the evidence as a guideline, determine if you have “Met” or “Not Met” each Standard.

If you need help with any aspect of your review, please contact the Teaching and Learning Center at distance.learning@coconino.edu.

CCC Essential Design Standards for Online Learning, Version 2.0
CCC Essential Design Standards for Online Learning, Version 2.0 with Examples
(Approved Online Instruction Committee, October 2023, Released February 2024)

History

The development of the Essential Design Standards for Online Instruction at Coconino Community College (CCC) represents a significant step forward in enhancing the quality and consistency of online and hybrid courses offered by the institution. This journey began with a clear vision to align course design with the highest standards in online education, drawing upon the well-established Quality Matters (QM) standards (6th edition) and the insights provided by the Canvas Course Evaluation Checklist v2.0. The primary goal was to create a robust framework that would serve as both a guide for faculty developing CCC online courses and an informal review checklist to ensure courses met the highest quality standards.

The initiative to formalize these standards was spearheaded by a task force led by Dave Rudakewich, which included a diverse team of CCC faculty and staff. Anticipating the need to maintain course quality beyond the pandemic, this team undertook the ambitious project of developing a detailed proposal for online course development. As a result, the Essential Design Standards for Online Instruction underwent a thorough review by all faculty members and received approval from the Faculty Senate.

Shared Course Project

In the Summer 2020, the task force outlined a process to establish guidelines for creating a series of high-quality online courses that the institution owns. The aim of the Shared Course Project is to provide courses as resources for faculty members who are new to online teaching and to ensure uniformity across different sections of online courses. Faculty course designers collaborate with an instructional designer in the creation, implementation, review, and continuous improvement of the course.

The task force's proposal outlined a rigorous development process, with clear expectations for the courses to reflect non-personalized content while adhering to the adopted standards and CCC's course and syllabus templates. The process included several critical meetings: an initial meeting to review expectations, progress meetings to keep the development on track, and a pre-delivery meeting to ensure the final product met all outlined expectations. This structured approach ensured that each course developed would contribute meaningfully to CCC's online course offerings, with the college retaining the right to share course shells with other instructors, thereby maximizing resource efficiency.

The selection of courses for development was strategic, focusing on those not currently offered online, high-enrolling classes, courses essential for a CCC-owned online AGEC, and those meeting special needs or core requirements. This approach ensured that the development efforts would have the most significant impact on the college's online curriculum. These shared courses are on a two-year maintenance cycle.

Open Educational Resources Project

In the Fall 2021, the Open Textbooks for Rural Arizona (OTRA) Grant, led by Yavapai College in collaboration with a consortium of seven community colleges including Coconino Community College, was awarded a grant for $801,218 from the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) to develop, disseminate, and share Open Educational Resources (OERs).

The grant's primary goal is to empower CCC faculty to replace proprietary textbooks with OERs, thereby reducing student costs, while also establishing processes and teaching methods that effectively integrate course materials with pedagogy and student learning outcomes. The project emphasizes the creation, adaptation, or adoption of OER materials that adhere to CCC's Essential Design Standards, ADA Standards for Accessibility, and OTRA OER Standards, ensuring high quality, accessible educational resources.

Faculty involved in the project engage in a structured development process, including training, peer review, and outcomes assessment, to produce OERs that are licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY or CC BY-NC) and shared across the consortium. This initiative not only underscores the commitment to reducing educational expenses but also reinforces the use of a rigorous course development process that upholds essential design standards, enhancing the quality and consistency of online education.

CCC Essential Design Standards, Version 2 - Update

In Spring 2023, Quality Matters(QM), a leader in quality assurance for online education, introduced its 7th edition standards, an update from the previous 6th edition. The revision addressed the evolving landscape of online learning, incorporating the latest research, technological advancements, and feedback from the educational community.

Recognizing the importance of aligning with these updated standards to maintain the highest quality in online course design, Coconino Community College (CCC) promptly decided to revise its Essential Design Standards. The update was aimed at integrating the new additions and refinements made by QM to ensure that CCC’s online and hybrid courses continued to meet and exceed national benchmarks for quality online education. The additions, while minor, reflect a deeper understanding of how students interact with online content and each other, as well as how instructors can best facilitate learning in a digital environment. The changes consisted of minor wording changes and also emphasized the importance of creating an inclusive and accessible learning experience.