California State University San Marcos - QA e-Portfolio 2020-2021                              

Proposal Summary:  At Cal. State University San Marcos we partnered with the Faculty Center and our IITS team to provide our faculty from a variety of disciplines with training and support with pedagogical strategies to create engaging and quality online courses for our student community. Despite COVID 19, we continue our efforts to better understand the needs of our faculty and students, and we are committed to providing them with the necessary training and tools. 

Campus Goal for Quality Assurance

• Our plan is to evaluate courses from the 4 Colleges and disciplines not previously represented in our reviews. We are going to focus on lower-level GE courses and new programs;
• Continue selecting faculty to complete CSU Chancellors Office Certification in spring 2021;
• The FC continued programming through Fall 2021 on current and emerging topics, including informal discussion hours for faculty to receive just-in-time feedback on challenges they were facing in the online classrooms;
• Develop an outreach plan for the CSU CO Certification. Identify and contact faculty who have successfully completed CSUSM QLT Certification and encourage them to complete the system-wide certification, in order to have more of our courses in CSU Fully Online Program;
• Provide ongoing support for faculty as they transition to new online teaching modalities throughout fall 2021;

• Continue to provide workshops to students on how to be successful in an online course, through our partnership with the Office of Undergraduate Studies.

Quality Assurance Lead(s)

• Cynthia Meléndrez, Associate Professor of Spanish
• Allison Carr, Faculty Center Director
• Barbara Taylor, IITS Academic Technology Services Director
  
• Lea Roberg-Chao, Instructor of Kinesiology

Supporting Campus Partners

Faculty Center, Provost, Current CSUSM faculty and stuff, University Library, Extended Learning, Instructional Designers (IDS), and Instructional and Information Technology Services (IITS).

Campus Commitment Toward Sustainability of QA Efforts

• IITS designers designed facilitated, and consulted with faculty in all course development efforts;
• Develop increased PD opportunities for the faculty, create a variety of workshops that place an emphasis on building student engagement in online courses;
• Offer a Community of Practice for faculty interested in continuing their professional development in online teaching, for faculty new to the modality.

Summary of Previous QA  Accomplishments

2019-2020 year we accomplished the following

• 10 courses were QLT peer reviewed from summer 2020 to spring 2021, the courses represented from 4 different disciplines across CSUSM;
• Faculty were incentivized with $250.00 in (PD) funds to submit a course for thorough review and additional $250.00 in (PD) funds to meet the Core 24 objectives and the 85% mark;
• 5 courses are in the process to complete the Core 24 and 85% mark; they will be completed during summer 2021 and Fall 2021;
• CSUSM increased the number of professional development programs, starting in Summer 2020, through Spring 2021;
• Teaching & Learning Online Workshop Series: This series started as a synchronous workshop series in Summer 2020 for faculty to prepare for Fall 2021. Using the QLT criteria as a framework, this program provided a foundation on online pedagogies, equity and inclusion, and caring for students;
• After Summer 2020, this was converted to a self-guided asynchronous course for faculty to complete as desired. Both the synchronous and asynchronous program included a self-assessment that asked faculty to explain what they had learned and the changes they made to their courses. Over 250 faculty completed the series and self-assessment;
• The FC continued programming through Fall 2021 on current and emerging topics, including informal discussion hours for faculty to receive just-in-time feedback on challenges they were facing in the online classrooms;
• We are continuing to facilitate Faculty Learning Community Online Teaching (FLC), in spring 2021. We have 6 faculty participants from (2) from Sociology, School of Nursing, Philosophy, Modern Language Studies, and Psychology.

Dissemination of QA Efforts— Conferences 

List the conference(s) attended, who attended, and the link to the presentation — National, Regional, State or Local

• Conference 1, Name of who attended, Link to presentation
• Conference 2, Name of who attended, Link to presentation

Training Completions

We provide the following trainings in our campus: Online Teaching Faculty Learning Community , QA and applying the  QLT instrument.

Online Teaching Faculty Learning Communities

QA Training Completions

Development of Campus QA Resources

Teaching & Tech Tips Videos

• https://youtu.be/M7RAuM4MhC4
  
• https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cYXDD4LVNL
• https://hermes.csusm.edu/Mediasite/Play/c6b8e6745a774a9f9ed605bef7185e241d

Academic Technology Services

• https://www.csusm.edu/iits/services/ats/
• https://www.csusm.edu/fc/teachingandlearning/preppingforfall2020/checklist-to-prepare-for-fall-2020.html

Teaching & Learning Online Workshops Series

The Faculty Center at CSUSM has served as a platform to offer the following resources to improve online teaching:

• Teaching and Learning Online Workshops Series 
• Online Teaching Faculty Learning Community
• Teaching & Tech Tips Videos
• Supporting Virtual Instructions: Surviving and Thriving While Teaching Online workshop
• Distance Learning Best Practices for Fall 2020 resource guide
• Synchronous, Asynchronous, and Blended Learning at CSUSM resource guide
• Assessment, Exams and Academic Integrity videos and resources guides

• https://www.csusm.edu/fc/news-events/events/flyers/20-21/supporting_virtual_instruction.pdf

Accessibility/UDL Efforts

• Cougar Courses ALLY
• Partnership with DSS
• UDL and Accessibility workshops through IIDS

Next Steps for QA Efforts 

• Promote Online Best Practices though multiple venues and modalities;
• Offer professional development opportunities to current faculty reviewers to expand their knowledge of peer review;
• Maintain records of courses that have completed review;
• Continue offering incentives to faculty to submit their courses for review to meet the Core 24 objectives and 85% mark;
• Offer professional development (PD) to faculty on online student engagement, active learning, and academic integrity in order to ensure students success;
• Continue to provide the Online Teaching Faculty Learning Community to give faculty an opportunity to spend 8 weeks understanding and utilizing (‘hands-on’) all online teaching methods;
• Increase submissions for CO certification.