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The 10 Core Practices Essential to a Quality Distance Learning Experience:
Asynchronous (Online) & Synchronous (Remote) Courses
https://tinyurl.com/10-Core-Best-Practices
Collaboratively Developed Working Framework - July 23, 2020
Overview
The following framework is informed by a few different initiatives to support teaching and learning at Bowling Green State University. We are now getting faculty input on specific best practice examples for each of the core practices. This will enable instructors to pick and choose what is best for them this Fall.
- As soon as the move to online learning was announced, an informal series of faculty sessions were organized by Steve Cady. These were held every Tue and Thu for the entire Spring semester. The group had a guiding document to organize their learnings, best practices, and supporting resources (see https://tinyurl.com/Teaching-Online-Transition). Over 170 faculty participated in the sessions and collaboratively supported each other in making the fast transition.
- In the Spring of 2020, Jerry Schnepp invited Steve Cady to join him in a research project examining the fast transition to online course delivery. Over 160 faculty responded to an open ended survey. They then invited Allison Goedde to join them in the data analysis. Together, they examined the data which focused on the experience and practices of faculty making a fast transition to online. In the survey, two of the questions were used to help inform this framework. The questions focused on things that worked well and things that didn’t work well. A review of these questions helped to inform the ten core practices.
- The Committee to Advance Teaching and Learning in the College of Business at BGSU began work on a rapid response plan for the Fall of 2020 (charge by Dean Braun). One of the projects of the committee was/is to identify the minimum specifications for distance courses to use as a guide for the Fall semester’s online courses. The framework originally evolved into an essential elements framework; however, the language of various similar documents also used the same labels. Also, we met with the chairs to review the framework and they desired something more friendly than the term “min specs.” This led to the 10 Core Practices with a focus on best practice examples. The CATL also reviewed the framework, revised the labels and definitions, met in huddles with instructors at the department level, and guided the framework toward concrete practices that instructors can readily adopt based on their level of expertise with distance teaching and learning. This has led to the beginner, intermediate, and advanced best practice examples as a table for the ten core practices.
- Finally, the framework has been shared broadly on the faculty listserv, among the College of Business faculty, staff, and administrators, and with the 170 participants in the Spring Zoom Session for Faculty Making the Transition to Online Learning. The input was used to further revise the labels and definitions in the table.
- In an effort to confirm the ten core practices and find specific examples for each, the framework was used to create a survey for students and instructors asking them to rate each core practice on importance and provide specific best practice examples for each. We have received 51 responses thus far on the survey (approx 52% students and 48% instructors). The table below provides stats on important to very important as the results suggest confirmation of the ten practices as essential and generally the right ones for distance learning. One respondent wrote, “...this list of ten core principles is pretty comprehensive and masterful. It doesn't just apply to online, remote classes. ALL classes need all ten!”
- As a result of the feedback, similar to the quote in the previous bullet, we are looking at a pyramid and will continue to build on the core practices that are essential at three levels: Level I Distance Learning (the ten we have described in the table below), Level II Online Synchronous (Remote) Learning, and Level III In-Person Learning. These three levels build on the one below, as a hierarchy.
The 10 Core Practices | Level | Total Importance Scores | Student Importance Scores | Instructor Importance Scores |
- Keep students informed with regular communication. The instructor sends communications on a predictable and regular basis using a standard medium. This promotes consistency and efficiency in the course, enables students to be proactive while increasing confidence, reduces stress, and fosters learning safety.
| IMP V.I. | 14.5% 81.8% | 7.1% 85.7% | 50.0% 45.0% |
- Coordinate all activities, events, and due dates though a central calendar. The instructor lists all due dates and reminders for course activities in a centralized location so that students can access the information on multiple devices and set notifications, as appropriate. This enables the student to self-manage, time manage, take responsibility for their learning, and be accountable for their coursework.
| IMP V.I. | 21.8% 61.8% | 14.3% 57.1% | 30.0% 65.0% |
- Ensure the students’ user experience is friendly and sticky. The instructor provides a concise, navigable online structure and setup for the course that is appealing and easy to use. This encourages students to leverage learning management system features that save themselves and faculty time, while reducing errors.
| IMP V.I. | 45.5% 47.3% | 42.9% 46.4% | 55.0% 45.0% |
- Frame the learning outcomes in ways that meaningfully connect with all aspects of the course. The instructor introduces and explains how the learning outcomes connect to all aspects of the course in ways that are relevant to the students’ professional and personal aims. This helps each student know the “why” of specific components and the whole course in ways that inspire their best work and best self.
| IMP V.I. | 41.8% 40.0%
| 39.3% 32.1%
| 50.0% 40.0% |
- Create a two-way conversation with students. The instructor proactively meets with their students regularly in synchronous (real time / live) and asynchronous (over time) forums. This creates students' sense of connection with the instructor, increases the instructor's presence within the class, and builds a trusting relationship among instructor and students.
| IMP V.I. | 34.5% 50.9%
| 32.1% 50.0% | 35.0% 55.0% |
- Facilitate an engaging collaborative learning community. The instructor creates activities that cause the students to collaborate and engage with each other on a deep and reflective level. This promotes a healthy learning community experience that encourages peer-to-peer support, reduces confusion, and increases commitment for all aspects of the course.
| IMP V.I. | 47.3% 30.9% | 39.3% 39.3%
| 55.0% 20.0% |
- Curate content, including lectures, that are accessible to all students. The instructor offers a variety of accessible content, including lectures, in mixed media forms that allows students to read, listen, view, and engage with the material. This encourages students to intentionally study the information to be more prepared for class events and assignments, enabling the instructor to build upon the content with active learning experiences.
| IMP V.I. | 49.1% 41.8% | 53.6% 32.1% | 50.0% 45.0%
|
- Protect the academic honesty and integrity of the course. The instructor creates valid and reliable procedures for assessing student learning that mitigates cheating. This ensures the course is fair and respected by students, provides a useful evaluation of learning outcomes for accrediting bodies, and maintains integrity of the degree program and university.
| IMP V.I. | 56.4% 38.2% | 42.9% 46.4% | 65.0% 35.0% |
- Build a learning scaffold of activities that require the use of course content. The instructor develops an integrated set of relevant tasks or pieces of work that build an applied learning scaffold (assignments that build on each other), requiring the use of course content to complete. This turns rote learning (lower on Bloom’s Taxonomy) into enduring learning (higher on Bloom’s Taxonomy) that students appreciate and use in their professional pursuits.
| IMP V.I. | 49.1% 38.2% | 46.4% 35.7% | 55.0% 35.0% |
- Provide a variety of relevant and timely feedback. The instructor provides timely feedback on all assessments, with additional mechanisms that foster student-student feedback (peer and double loop learning). This ensures that students focus on their own learning, believe the feedback is credible, and stay motivated to improve themselves.
| IMP V.I. | 25.5% 69.1% | 21.4% 71.4%
| 30.0% 65.0% |
Level: IMP = Important & V.I. = Very Important
Citation - Cady, S.H. & Vanderhart, P.G. (2020). The 10 Core Practices Essential to a Quality Distance Learning Experience: Asynchronous (Online) & Synchronous (Remote) Courses. Bowling Green State University, College of Business, Committee to Advance Teaching & Learning (CATL), Teaching Plan for Fall 2020: College of Business Rapid Response Initiative. www.tinyurl.com/10-Core-Best-Practices