Blueprint for Quality

What constitutes a great online course or training program? Quality can be defined and measured; these resources provide a wealth of guidance for achieving the best possible learning environment.

• Chickering and Gamson - The Seven Principles of Good Practice: Using Technology to Improve Learning Outcomes
  This web resource is based upon one of the classical works on good practice in teaching, The Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education (1986), and includes updated resources to account for the improvements in technology in education. A recommended read for all educators! Find it online at: http://www.tltgroup.org/Seven/Home.htm
  
  
• Quality Matters (Maryland Online)
  This site provides a practical and useful rubric for instructors to apply to online course designs. The goal of Maryland Online's Quality Matters project was to "develop a ... pathway for inter-institutional quality assurance and course improvements in online learning, [and] create and implement a process to certify the quality of online courses and online components....The project identified 40 elements, distributed across eight broad standards, shown to positively impact student learning. These elements were then incorporated into a web-based rubric and weighted from 1 (important) to 3 (essential). Annotations and multiple examples from real online courses have been provided for each essential element." See http://www.qualitymatters.org/
  
  
• Best Practices in Designing Online Courses by Las Positas College
  A straight-forward checklist for designing quality course websites and course plans, including templates and example files that can be downloaded. Find it online at: http://lpc1.clpccd.cc.ca.us/lpc/blackboard/best_practices/
  
  
• The Sloan Consortium
  "A Consortium of Institutions and Organizations Committed to Quality Online Education" online at: http://www.sloan-c.org/index.asp. This site includes a members' wiki for best practices and a Quality Framework. Select the "Effective Practices" link.

Want to offer a course through NDSU Distance & Continuing Education?

Select this link to access forms and syllabus guidelines.

Course Template for Blackboard

The DCE Instructional Design Team has created a template that is available to all DCE course instructors upon request. This course template is customizable and intended to speed the design and setup of a new course website in Blackboard. Personalized training and assistance in setting up the template is also available. Contact Lyn Willoughby by phone at 701-231-6371 or by email at lyn.willoughby@ndsu.edu.