2022-2023 — 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. Implementation of this proposal involved one-on-one eLearning Specialists and Faculty relationships, and a concentrated effort to provide training and designing quality courses that meet QM standards and incorporating the latest innovation and design pedagogy. 

Campus Goal for Quality Assurance

The main focus of our proposal:

• Certify ten online and/or hybrid courses through the 2022 - 2023 CO QA initiative.
• To have at least 150 faculty members attend some type of QA training.

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

• 13 courses received QM certification with 5 more currently in progress. 
• 29 faculty and staff attended QM QA training (see table on Training Completions).
• 138 faculty and staff attended the Canvas migration course development training including some QM components.

 

CSU East Bay QA Canvas Training (selected example), April 28 2023

 

Quality Assurance Leads

• Keri O'Neal, 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
  
  

Campus Commitment Toward Sustainability of QA Efforts

• CSUEB continues to prioritize quality as a culture on campus. We have supported 20 cohorts going through various QA initiatives. As a result, over 652 faculty received some type of QA training and over 195 courses were QA certified since 2015. 
• Throughout this past academic year, CSUEB had been focusing on the Canvas migration, we developed and hosted Canvas faculty trainings which incorporates Quality Matters standards. While it might not be Quality Matter certified trainings, it incorporated Quality Matters standards to meet our goals and help our campus get trained on Canvas.
• 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), and additional workshops during the academic year.

Summary of Previous QA  Accomplishments

Since Fall 2015, Cal State East Bay has engaged in a number of efforts focused on QM and Quality Assurance programming, training, and support that contributed to the success of our 2022-2023 efforts. Prior Accomplishments include:

• Total 195 courses (13 certified in 21-22) certified as high quality courses by QM and QLT.
• 2019: Quality Matters National "Making a Difference for Students" Higher Education recognition.
• 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;
• 2022-2023 Online and Hybrid Course Quality Transformation Grant Program (QA);
• 2021-2022 Online and Hybrid Course Quality Transformation Grant Program (QA);
• 2020-2021 Online and Hybrid Course Quality Transformation Grant Program (QA);
• 2018-2019 Online and Hybrid Course Quality Transformation Grant Program (QA);
• 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 

• Cheryl Saelee, Senior eLearning Specialist of Online Campus was mentioned on an article: Faculty Reflection: The Importance of Preparing an Effective Syllabus
• Cal Tech Connect Conference 2022, Dr. Michelle Rippy, Faith Espudo, Dr. Roger Wen, Cheryl Saelee, Presenters, Link to Presentation
• DET/CHE 37th Conference 2022, Cheryl Saelee, Presenter, Link to Presentation
• OLC Innovate Virtual Conference 2023, Cheryl Saelee, Dr. Roger Wen, Shara Cheng, Attendees

Presenters for Cal Tech Connect Conference: Dr. Michelle Rippy, CSUEB Faculty, Cheryl Saelee, Senior eLearning Specialist, Faith Espudo, CSUEB Faculty, Dr. Roger Wen, CSUEB Senior Director of Online Campus

 

Training Completions

The following table summarizes all Cal State East Bay faculty and staff that have taken QA training during the 2022-2023 academic year. 

Course Peer Review and Course Certifications

Each faculty member is paired with an eLearning Specialist and they work together to get the course ready for review. The eLearning Specialists conducts peer reviews of all courses before they are submitted to QM.

At Cal State East Bay, there are currently 18 eligible QM Peer and Master Reviewers:

1. Amy June Rowley
2. Beverly Bondad-Brown
3. Cheryl Saelee
4. Chinglih Jan
5. Erick Kong
6. Isaiah Lankham
7. James Mitchell
8. Jiasheng Guo
9. John Tan
10. Kimberly Kim
11. Meg Taggart
12. Michael Greathouse
13. Michelle Rippy
14. Andrew Wong (Master Reviewer)
15. Roger Wen (Master Reviewer)
16. James Thomas (Master Reviewer)
17. Keelin Jardin (Master Reviewer)
18. Kevin Kaatz (Master Reviewer)

The table below shows the 13 Quality Matters Certified courses for 2022-2023 Academic Year.

Development of Campus QA Resources

List of Resources Developed

• Continue updating help guides to reflect Canvas using Screensteps
• Developed syllabus information sheet that contains information about what to include according to the CSUEB Policy on Course Syllabus Information and to meet Quality Matter Standards.
• Newly designed syllabus templates available for faculty
• Acquired site licenses for Padlet
• Updated Online Student Support and Services
• Maintaining a master university template that meets the QA standards 
• Creating video tutorials for Canvas
• Regular faculty workshops on course design related topics
• Updated Learning Technologies and Services Guide

CSU East Bay University Template updated to align with the syllabus policy and addresses QM standards. 

 

Accessibility/UDL Efforts

• Canvas Orientation Course - updated to reflect the Canvas environment.
• Online Campus staff took workshops offered by the Online Learning Consortium.
• Offered accessibility training workshops to faculty in an effort to establish an inclusive campus community.
• Continued to train student assistants on using ALLY.
• Continued to use ALLY in all Canvas and Blackboard courses, including training faculty on using ALLY to improve the accessibility of their course content. 
• Trained student assistants continue to assist faculty on their online and hybrid courses with ALLY to achieve close to a 100% accessibility score.

A Video on How to Use Ally Accessibility checker in Canvas

Next Steps for QA Efforts 

• Our eLearning Specialists are in the process of recertification as QM facilitators due to the New QM Rubrics update for the 7th edition.
• Continue to recruit and support more faculty members to attend some type of QA training that includes APPQMR, DYOC and IYOC.
• Identify and certify 7 more online or hybrid courses in 2023- 2024 through supporting Cohort 21 who participate in the OHQT Grant.
• Seek additional funding to elevate progress.