AY 2024-25 — San Diego State University

For AY 2024-25, San Diego State University (SDSU) maintained our support of local Graduation Initiative efforts in the following ways: 

• We updated and delivered our Course Design Institute’s (CDI) semester-long program, featuring weekly meetings with a cohort of faculty participants given course release by Academic Affairs to develop online or hybrid courses that are high-impact, large enrollment, and/or bottleneck courses and facilitate timely graduation for students. The cohort was supported by a team of seven coaches.
• We continued offering the Self-Paced Online Training (SPOT) online and hybrid course design program to faculty throughout the academic year. Often referred by their colleges or departments, any interested faculty were welcome to participate on a voluntary basis in this QLT-based Canvas course to either design a new or review an existing online course, with an assigned coach to provide feedback and guide them through the process.

We included two main goals in our 2024-25 proposal:

• Goal 1: Continue to implement QLT as the campus standard for QA in online and hybrid teaching and learning across campus.
• Goal 2: Maintain faculty support programs for designing and reviewing their online and hybrid courses with funding support from the CSU OCS award to provide coaching support, including from CSU course-certified instructors.

Online Course Services Lead

Katie Hughes, M.A., Lecturer, Department of Rhetoric and Writing Studies, and IT Faculty Fellow, Instructional Technology 

Supporting Campus Partners

• James Frazee, Vice President for IT & Chief Information Officer, Information Technology

• Sean Hauze, Chief Operating Officer, Information Technology

• Ethan Garcia, Learning Technologies Manager, IT Instructional Technology 

CDI and SPOT Co-Leads

• Katie Hughes, IT Faculty Fellow, CSU OCS Lead, & Lecturer in Rhetoric & Writing Studies

• Andrea Saltzman Martin, Instructional Designer Lead, IT Instructional Technology & College of Education 

CDI and SPOT Coaching Team

• Katie Hughes, CDI & SPOT Co-Lead

• Andrea Saltzman Martin, CDI & SPOT Co-Lead

• Jon Rizzo, Senior Instructional Designer, IT Instructional Technology

• Kristi Collins, Instructional Designer, IT Instructional Technology

• Nava Amoona, Instructional Designer, IT Instructional Technology

• Ralph Blanchard, Instructional Media Support Technician, IT Instructional Technology

• Stuart Voytilla, IT Faculty Fellow, Professional Studies and Fine Arts

• Maya Ginsberg, Lecturer, School of Music & Dance

• Sonya Schumann, Lecturer, School of Music & Dance

Campus Commitment Toward Sustainability of OCS Efforts

We will maintain ongoing efforts to support local Graduation Initiative efforts with QLT-based faculty training in online and hybrid course design through the CDI Program, the SPOT-CDI Program, and faculty referrals to CSU OCS courses:

• Pending funding approval, the semester-long, QLT-based CDI Program will again be offered in the Spring semester to approximately 10 faculty whose colleges refer them for course release provided by Academic Affairs.
• The online, asynchronous SPOT Program will continue to run both Fall and Spring semesters and will accommodate up to 20 participants per semester. Through CSU OCS funding, we can provide one faculty with course release each semester to accommodate these participants.
• We will continue to promote the CSU OCS courses and Core 24 QLT reviews to faculty across campus as alternative options to pursue.

Other commitments include:

• Continuing to offer year-round workshops focused on various topics related to teaching and learning strategies for online, hybrid, and in-person classes.
• Inviting faculty who have completed the CDI or the SPOT Design Pathway to participate in the SPOT Review Pathway or the CSU Core 24 QLT review to review their courses.
• Soliciting faculty who have completed the SPOT Review Pathway or CSU Core 24 QLT review to undergo CSU formal course reviews. 

Campus Online Course Services Resources

• ITS online support in the Virtual FIT (Faculty Instructional Technology) Center 
• Training & Workshops offerings through ITS and CSU OCS
• Course Design Institute (CDI) 
• Self-Paced Online Training Program (SPOT-CDI)

Summary of Previous OCS  Accomplishments

• We have run our CDI Program based on QLT rubric criteria since its inception in 2011.
• We created the Flexible Course Design Program in response to the 2020 pandemic to deliver fast-tracked, comprehensive, QLT-based online course design training to over 1,000 faculty across campus. 
• We created the QLT-based SPOT Program in 2022 in response to requests from college deans to expand our reach to meet increasing demand for online and hybrid courses on a year-round basis. 
• In addition to our campus based QLT trainings, we have consistently referred faculty to CSU OCS trainings. 
• We have had six faculty receive CSU Course Certifications since 2022. 

We focused on three training programs during AY 24-25:

1. Course Design Institute (CDI) Program
2. Self-Paced Online Training (SPOT) Program
3. CSU Online Course Services 3-week online courses

CDI Results

Ten faculty participated in our long-standing CDI semester-long course during the Spring 2025 semester. These faculty were selected by their colleges to receive course release from Academic Affairs to develop new online or hybrid courses that are high-impact, large enrollment, and/or bottleneck courses and therefore facilitate timely graduation for students. We updated our CDI Canvas course, adding some AI-related activities and revised submission requirements to establish accountability among participants. Weekly 2-hour meetings covered a different aspect of course design each week, including guest presenters and exemplars from other faculty. A coaching team of seven Instructional Designers and Faculty Fellows met regularly with participants and provided ongoing feedback and support. 

The instructors and courses developed in Spring 2025 are listed below:

• Niyi Coker, TFM 330, Cultural Aspects of Media
• Tracy Finlayson, PH 450, Public Health Policy
• Lisa Gates, LEAD 420, Ethnography of Organizational Culture and Leadership
• Rati Kumar, COMM 371, Intercultural Communication
• Erika Rodriguez, NURS 444, Nursing Care of Acute & Chronically Ill Adult &      Gerontologic Patient
• James Romine, PH 306, Public Health Research
• Natalie Santizo, CCS 141B, American Institutions
• Phillip Serrato, ECL 502, Literature of Adolescence
• Valerie Stahl, PA 320, Intro to Urban Planning
• Jess Whatcott, WMNST 341, Women and US History

Faculty feedback: In the CDI exit survey, CDI participants consistently ranked their CDI experience as "very effective" (the highest ranking option) in helping them develop their online courses, and indicated through open comments that the program held great value for them. For example, one faculty stated, “This is the future of higher education and ought to be made compulsory for all faculty.”

SPOT Results

Fall semester: Seventeen participants started the program and 4 completed and received certificates of completion (3 designers and 1 reviewer). Some faculty signed up but requested extensions or dropped out of the program. 

Spring semester: Fourteen participants started the program and 4 completed and received certificates of completion (3 designers and 1 reviewer). Again, some faculty signed up but requested extensions or dropped out of the program.

Faculty Feedback: SPOT participants indicated high levels of satisfaction with the course content, examples, and coaching. They also found the self-paced aspect of the program to be helpful, adding comments such as, “This flexible approach allowed me to balance responsibilities while maintaining consistent progress. Much appreciated!”

CSU Online Course Services 

We had six faculty completions of CSU OCS courses during AY 24-25, and one faculty course certification awarded.

Course Peer Review and Course Certifications

Campus Level Peer Reviews

Our SPOT program’s Review Pathway requires a self-review using the QLT rubric as the starting point for course review and improvements based on any ratings below 2 / 3. We had two faculty self-review through this pathway:

• Yang Liang, ECON 360
• Tonni Xia, ACCTG 790

The six Design Pathway faculty who completed the SPOT program also received ongoing peer reviews from SPOT coaches, one QLT objective at a time, as they designed their new courses. These faculty informally met the QLT core-24 objectives in their course designs:

• Julia Hess, RWS 305W
• Lin Wang, ACCTG 332
• Chris Werry, RWS 305W
• Miranda Chase, POLSCI104
• Robert Malouf, LING 583
• Amy Wong, AAS 268

CSU Level Formal Course Reviews

One faculty member, Scott Lipscomb, completed a self-review in order to submit his course, MUSIC 151, Introduction to Music: Rock History to 1980, for CSU course certification, which he received in December 2024. 

Accessibility/UDL Efforts

Both the CDI and SPOT Canvas courses include modules dedicated to UDL and Accessibility, including explanatory Overview pages, the QLT Rubric Section 8 core objectives, and Examples and Resources pages containing multiple links. 

Our UDL specialists in ITS, Jon Rizzo, conducts workshops, disseminates information and resources, and offers consultations with faculty to promote and train them in UDL best practices. He also presents at our CDI meeting that focuses on these topics. 

Over the last year the following were accomplished in relation to UDL & Accessibility support at SDSU:

• Videos captioned: 1,133
• Faculty trained in UDL and accessibility: 203
• Ally software used in Canvas: 121,644 alternative formats downloaded by 18,923 students; 7,255 accessibility fixes to instructional materials made by faculty and staff.

In addition, ITS continued the UDL/Accessibility Faculty Ambassador Program and trained 5 new faculty ambassadors. SDSU now has a total of 19 ambassadors. Faculty Ambassadors help enhance accommodations for disabled students by acting as advocates for students and promoting UDL/Accessibility techniques at SDSU.

During AY 2025-26, we plan to continue our existing faculty support programs as follows: 

• Update and offer the Course Design Institute semester-long course in Spring 2026 to a cohort of faculty nominated by their college deans. These faculty will be provided course release pending funding approval by Academic Affairs to develop courses that are high-impact, large enrollment, and/or bottleneck courses to facilitate timely graduation for students.
• Offer the Self-Paced Online Teaching (SPOT) course both Fall and Spring semesters for any interested faculty to design or review online/hybrid courses, using the QLT rubric and the SPOT asynchronous Canvas course as the framework. Encourage both faculty who need or desire Certificates of Completion and those who wish to engage in more limited faculty development opportunities.
• Integrate into both CDI and SPOT programs more potential uses for and examples of AI in various phases of course design, as well as strategies to work with rather than against student use of AI in completing learning activities and assessments.
• Promote QLT and UDL resources and offer updated workshops and trainings to faculty across campus.
• Showcase faculty who have completed QLT course reviews and received certifications, as well as CDI and SPOT completers, and invite them to present or otherwise share examples of their course design.
• Continue to promote CSU OCS training courses through timely communications with Deans, Department Chairs, and IT Instructional Technology support staff.