2020-2021 — CSU East Bay— Establishing a Culture of Quality Assurance

Proposal Summary:  Cal State East Bay proposed to increase the number of faculty trained in QA and the number of QM certified courses. Encouraging faculty to use affordable learning solutions was also part of this proposal. With Covid 19 requirements for remote and online teaching, Cal State East Bay dedicated additional funding to host Summer and Fall virtual institutes to increase faculty training opportunities.

Campus Goal for Quality Assurance

The main focus of our proposal: 

• Certify ten online and/or hybrid courses through the 2020-2021 CO QA initiative.

• Encourage instructors to use OER in their course designs or redesigns to save students money on the cost of the materials. 

• 25 to 45 faculty complete the Quality Matters APPQMR, IYOC, and/or an OER workshop and then submit their courses for QM certification.

•  Fifty + faculty complete the ACUE course “Effective Online Teaching Practices” as part of the  ACUE/NASH/CSU opportunity, “Scaling Instructional Excellence for Student Success in the CSU,” which included modules on online course design.

We met and went beyond our proposal goals in the following ways:

• 10 courses received QM certification with 5 more currently in progress. 

• 98 faculty and staff attended QM QA trainings (APPQMR, DYOC and IYOC)

• 167 faculty attended our virtual institutes and submitted their deliverables. 

• Online Campus staff received certification to facilitate DYOC which has and will continue to result in more QA training for faculty

• New Faculty Orientation includes a QM training requirement

• The Office of Faculty Development/Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching had two cohorts of faculty participating in ACUE.  54 faculty completed the certificate. 

• Held 2 OER workshops with 18 attendees. 

• 24 faculty made their courses $0 cost or reduced cost as part of their design or redesign process during 20-21.

CSU East Bay Virtual Summer Institute Attendees and Presenter (selected example), Summer 2020.

 

Quality Assurance Lead(s)

• Jessica Weiss, PhD, Director of Faculty Development

• Roger Wen, PhD, Senior Director of the Online Campus

Supporting Campus Partners

• Provost and Associate Provost, Academic Affairs

• The Online Campus Instructional Designer, eLearning Specialists, and LMS Administrators/User Support Consultants

• Office of Faculty Development/Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching

• Media and Technology Services

• Library

Campus Commitment Toward Sustainability of QA Efforts

• CSUEB continues to prioritize quality as a culture on campus. We have supported 16 cohorts going through various QA initiatives. As a result, over 300 faculty received QA training and over 150 courses were QA certified since 2015. 

• OFD/FACET and the Online Campus are well-established campus entities with sustained annual funding and both departments provide robust trainings for the development of instructional faculty. Both departments work to produce and present at Back to the Bay (our annual professional development conference), Virtual Institutes and additional workshops during the academic year. 

• CSUEB continues to commit funding to teaching-focused faculty learning communities and the base budget for Online Campus operations. Recently, the Online Campus received approval to hire for two additional staff members.

Summary of Previous QA  Accomplishments

Since Fall 2015, Cal State East Bay has engaged in a number of efforts focused on QLT, QM and Quality Assurance programming, training, and support that contributed to the success of our 2020-2021 efforts. Prior Accomplishments include:

• Total 154 courses (10 certified in 20-21) certified as high quality courses by QM and QLT.
• The Online Campus received the 2019 Quality Matters National "Making a Difference for Students" Higher Education recognition for our prior QA efforts.
• Assessment results: The combined 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 efforts are paid off. When we compared courses taught by QA-participating faculty between Summer 2014 and Summer 2017, the percentage of DWFs in online courses taught by faculty who participated in QA activities [9.60%] is significantly lower than that in courses taught by faculty who have not participated in QA activities [10.47%]. [F(1, 3261)=4.162, p=.041]. We anticipate that the courses taught by participating faculty in the remainder of 2017-2018 as well as 2018-2019 will show similar declines;
• 2017-2018 Online and Hybrid Course Quality Transformation Grant Program (QA);
• 2016-2017 Online and Hybrid Course Quality Transformation Grant Program (QA);
• 2015-2016 Online and Hybrid Course Quality Transformation Grant Program (QA);
• 2015-2016 Revising Your Online Courses for Semester Conversion Faculty Learning Community;
• 2014-2015 Online and Hybrid Course Quality Transformation Grant Program (QA);
• 2014-2015 Teaching with Technology Faculty Learning Community;
• 2014: Summer Institute: Journey to Excellence in Online Education (QOLT introduced);
• 2015-2016 QOLT Campus Nominee, Kevin Kaatz, Department of History;
• 2015 College Coordinators for Quality Assurance Faculty Learning Community (QM-based);
• 2014-2015 QOLT Awardee, Kevin Kaatz, Department of History;

Dissemination of QA Efforts— Conferences

• OLC Innovate 2021, Cheryl Saelee and Monica Munoz, As attendees

• Flexible Course Institute 2021, Jessica Weiss, Online Campus staff, As attendees

Training Completions

CSU East Bay Virtual Summer Institute Course in Blackboard Ultra, Summer 2020.

 

Course Peer Review and Course Certifications

Each faculty member is paired with an eLearning Specialist/Instructional Designer and they work together to get the course ready for review. The eLearning Specialist/Instructional Designer conducts a self-review of all courses before they are submitted to QM. 

At Cal State East Bay, there are currently 14 eligible QM Peer and Master Reviewers:

1. Amy June Rowley
2. Cheryl Saelee
3. Chinglih Jan
4. Erick Kong
5. Georgie Ziff
6. Isaiah Lankham
7. James Mitchell
8. James Thomas
9. Keelin Jardin
10. Kimberly Kim
11. Michelle Rippy
12. Monica Munoz
13. Andrew Wong
14. Kevin Kaatz (Master Reviewer)

The table below shows the 10 Quality Matters Certified courses for 2020-2021 Academic Year. We also recognize faculty at Back to the Bay and the Spring Celebration of Teaching. 

Development of Campus QA Resources

List of Resources Developed

• Blackboard Exemplary Course examples - continued to add examples to this course.

• Blackboard Orientation Course - converted the training to a new tool and updated content.

• Acquired a license for CourseArc

• Acquired a license for CourseTune

• Regular faculty workshops on course design related topics

• Updated Learning Technologies and Services Guide

Accessibility/UDL Efforts

• Online Campus staff took Web AIM training offered by the Chancellor’s Office

• Offered accessibility training workshops to campus community, including staff who create flyers for students. 

• Offered Universal Design Learning workshops as part of our virtual institutes. 

• Purchased additional ABBYY licenses for Online Campus staff. 

• Continued to use ALLY in all Blackboard courses and train faculty on using ALLY to improve the accessibility of their course content.

Next Steps for QA Efforts

• Host Virtual Summer Institute serving over 80 faculty members 

• Host 2 sessions of DYOC

• Train new faculty Aug 6th on DYOC

• Identify and certify 10 more online or hybrid courses in 2021- 2022

• Recruit and support 150 faculty members attend QA training

• Seek additional funding to elevate progress

• Support 1 ACUE Cohort  of 30 in 2021-22