California State University San Marcos                        Quality Online Learning and Teaching Best Practices        2021-2022

Proposal Summary:  Through the years CSUSM has provided training and support to faculty of significant pedagogical strategies to create engaging and quality online courses for our student community. CSUSM has a continual systematic approach centered on professional development (PD) and peer QLT evaluations, and QM training through the Faculty Center, in collaboration with Academic Technology Services (ATS). The Faculty Center continues offering training and other support and resources for faculty who are teaching their courses online: Faculty Center 

Campus Goal for Quality Assurance

This past year, AY 2021-2022, CSUSM increased programming by offering a series of talks and virtual meetings to aid our faculty teaching online. In addition, the Faculty Center has a considerable Teaching and Learning Online Workshop series and assessment website to provide constant support:

• Our plan is to continue evaluating 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 2023;
• Apply the QLT instrument in our CSUSM review process to at least 10 new courses (fall 2021/spring 2022). We keep focusing on lower-level GE courses and new programs. We encourage our faculty to take course “Applying the QLT rubric” through the chancellor’s office during the review process. Faculty will have to make the changes in their courses to meet the 24 Core objectives and 85% mark by spring 2021. Faculty will be incentivized with $500.00 after meeting the QLT Core-24;
• Offer incentives to faculty who have had courses reviewed to address the peer-reviewed recommendation and complete the Core-24. Our plan is to have the Faculty Fellow and ATS team reach any faculty who did not achieve 85% of the Core 24 and offer them support to complete the Core-24. We will also do outreach to faculty and staff to increase consciousness and understanding of QA services;
• Over the academic year, the Faculty Fellow for Online Teaching and the Faculty Center will provide workshops to prepare all faculty to teach online using Canvas and the new QLT rubric in Fall 2022. 

Quality Assurance Lead(s)

• Cynthia Meléndrez, Faculty Fellow for Quality Online Learning and Teaching
  
  
  
  

   

• Allison Carr, Faculty Center Director

  
  

• Barbara Taylor, IITS Academic Technology Services Director
  

  
  

• Terri Georgopoulos, Instructional Development Services
  

• Lea Roberg-Chao, Instructor of Kinesiology, QLT Team Leader

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

• Instructional and Information Technology Services (IITS) partners with the campus to support CSUSM’s enterprise computing infrastructure and services.
• California State University San Marcos takes pride in being a diverse and inclusive campus and ensure that students with disabilities have access to the same learning experience as those without.
• The Quality Learning and Teaching (QLT) program was developed to support faculty to effectively design and deliver online, blended, and flipped courses. The peer-reviewers are fellow CSUSM faculty who have participated in training to apply the QLT rubric to your course, along with a CSUSM instructional designer.                                                          

Summary of Previous QA Accomplishments  2021-2022 year we accomplished the following

• We exceeded our goal and we reviewed 19 courses were QLT peer reviewed from fall 2021 to spring 2022, 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. 8 courses are in the process to complete the Core 24 and 85% mark; we expect to be completed during spring-summer 2022. These courses represented all of the colleges: CHABSS, COBA, CEHHS, and CSTEM. We reviewed the following courses, some of which were lower-division GE courses: MATH 212, CHEM 311, KINE 336, HD 301, ANTH 240, BUS 300, FIN 302, FIN 340, PSYC 100, PSYC 336, MDIA 365, PHIL 340, SPAN 201, AMD 308, and CHAD 339.
• 2 courses are reviewing though the chancellor’s office in spring 2022: Math 212 and PSYC 344.
• The FC continued programming through Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 - Summer 2022 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. These conversations included: 
  • Academic Integrity in our Virtual Learning Environment 
  • Checking in with Faculty: Taking Care of Yourself 
  • Reflecting on Teaching Online Using the Community of Inquiry Framework Attendance at each of the workshop ranged from 05-15 and were recorded for future use. 
  • Canvas Summer Teaching Institute.

Faculty Corner

Faculty Facilitators & Learners

"Thank you, It was very helpful and I look forward to working with Terri. She is the best."

"It was a pleasure meeting with you and discussing the results of your QLT Review."

"It was a real pleasure to meet with you, too! I’m excited to work on my course over the summer, and I will definitely be in touch with Terri—she has already been so helpful with other questions/issues I’ve had with my courses in the past."

"I will continue to seek out additional ideas for building a learning community online. Thanks for a very informative course!"

"I really enjoyed this FLC, and it couldn’t have happened in a “better” moment. Great job, thank you!"

"Though I believe I meet some of the key objectives on this learning mode, I still have much more to improve upon."

Congratulations Certified CSU-QLT Courses

Training Completions

We provide the following trainings in our campus: Online Teaching Faculty Learning Community , Canvas Summer Institute, 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://www.csusm.edu/fc/teachingandlearning/teachingonline/distancelearningchecklist.pdf

Academic Technology Services

• https://www.csusm.edu/iits/services/ats/

Teaching & Learning Online Workshops Series

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

• Flexible Course Institute Online Program
• Online Teaching Faculty Learning Community
• Teaching & Tech Tips Videos
• Supporting Virtual Instructions: Surviving and Thriving While Teaching Online workshop
• Spring 2022 Virtual Start Self-Guide Resources: https://www.csusm.edu/fc/teachingandlearning/spring-2022-virtual-start-self-guided-resources.html
• Covid Teaching & Learning Resources
• Assessment, Exams and Academic Integrity videos and resources guides

Accessibility/UDL Efforts

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

Next Steps for QA Efforts 

Goal 1: Recruit faculty to participate in the CSUSM QLT review and CSU CO Certification

1. Provide incentives and training to faculty who did not complete the cycle of review. Some faculty started the QLT Review process but stopped short of achieving the 85% Core 24. Timeline: Spring 2022: Identify and contact faculty; Fall 2023: Finalize those reviews.
2. 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.

Goal 2: Build capacity to grow the QLT Program by increasing the number of reviewers.

1. Develop an outreach plan including incentives to encourage QLT certified faculty to become reviewers. We initiated this goal in 21/22, and had a small faculty response. Without increasing reviewers, we cannot increase the number of courses reviewed. By tapping into faculty whose courses have already been reviewed, we can offer these faculty the opportunity to give back to their colleagues as reviewers, as well as continue to develop in their own online teaching. 

Goal 3: Continue to provide professional development opportunities to improve online teaching. 

1. Provide ongoing support for faculty as they transition to new online teaching modalities throughout fall 2022.
2. Assess the needs of faculty as we continue to add courses to online offerings.