About this page

This resource was created in Spring 2017 as part of the ID-2-ID program at Penn State. The purpose of this page is to provide a collection of resources to help instructors assess quality in their own online teaching and in the teaching of their peers. Our goal is to provide a way for interested instructors to have their online courses assessed by peers. If you are interested in becoming part of this initiative, please email Katrina Wehr or Kate Morgan.

What is quality online instruction at Penn State?

We set out to answer this question by first researching to see what Penn State already had published. We found a number of resources from various learning design shops around Penn State, in addition to some resources published from administrative settings at the university.

After surveying the available resources at PSU, we expanded our search to include some peer-reviewed tools from other institutions, such as SUNY’s rubric, listed below. This site is intended to be a learning resource and a space for faculty to find tools they can use to do peer review of online teaching.

Rubrics for Peer Assessment

Dutton e-Education Institute Peer Review Teaching Resources: http://facdev.e-education.psu.edu/evaluate-revise/peerreviewonline

The Dutton e-Education Institute is team dedicated to assisting Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Science faculty teach with technology. The department developed this set of resources to help faculty peer-review colleagues’ online courses. The Online Learning Consortium also featured Dutton’s resources here: http://olc.onlinelearningconsortium.org/effective_practices/tool-faculty-peer-review-online-teaching

SUNY OSCQR Rubric: https://bbsupport.sln.suny.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/OSCQR/OSCQR-Links-BKP-2016-08-09.html

SUNY’s rubric was designed to address both instructional design and accessibility of online courses. Developed as a centralized effort to help promote quality course design across the university system, the OSCQR (Open SUNY Course Quality Review) Rubric and accompanying review process are flexible, continuous quality-measuring and improvement tools. It incorporates 50 standards and the platform developed by SUNY allows for easy customization to add your own standards.

California State University, Chico’s Rubric for Online Instruction: http://www.csuchico.edu/tlp/resources/rubric/rubric.pdf

Widely cited by west coast schools as a useful resource for faculty, this rubric from Cal State Chico covers six categories of online course development and facilitation across three levels of mastery: Baseline, Effective, and Exemplary. With categories focused on topics such as organization, delivery, and assessment, this rubric can be used a self evaluation or a peer evaluation tool.

Middle Tennessee State University’s Faculty Peer Review Rubric: http://www.mtsu.edu/university-college/faculty/docs/pdf/faculty_peer_review_form.pdf

This rubric involves a side-by-side approach, where the course designer/facilitator self-evaluates in one column and the peer reviewer evaluates immediately following. This rubric can be used synchronously or asynchronously with the peer reviewer depending on the nature of the evaluation. This rubric is designed to be used prior to course launch as a checkpoint to ensure all tasks are completed before the first run of a course.

Other Resources Regarding Online Teaching

Colorado State University’s Evaluation of Online Teaching in Clinical Sciences: http://csu-cvmbs.colostate.edu/documents/clinsci-eval-online-courses.pdf

This resource from Colorado State includes a guided walk through that takes participants through the review process together. Based on the Quality Matters rubric, the linked resource includes checklists that highlight essential components of online courses and provides background information to help both the course developer/facilitator and the reviewer know where to look for each piece and what evidence constitutes an acceptable course component.

“Ten Best Practices for Teaching Online” compiled by Judith Boettcher: http://www.designingforlearning.info/services/writing/ecoach/tenbest.html

Boettcher’s book, “Designing for Learning” is a staple in instructional design programs and her website is full of short articles derived from the topics in her text. This page is a great resource for new online teachers. It outlines some of the best practices for facilitating online learning as a first-time online teacher. Boettcher includes tips that help instructors take advantage of the online learning space by incorporating resources and tools that are easily accessible via computer, emphasizing meeting learners where they are: online!