The College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences online instructional designers, Beth Bailey and Michele Korgeski, presented their poster titled “ Trust the Climb: A guide to establishing and managing a quality online framework” at the virtual Quality Matters QM ConnectLX national conference this past November.
“Our virtual interactive poster tour took attendees step by step through our quality assured design and development process, while allowing them to view and download our tools and templates, and explore our delivery platform and framework for inspiration,” Korgeski said.
The CPASS online quality framework allows programs to apply consistencies in the design, development and delivery of online courses.
“Inspired by other institutions’ open education resources and the WVU Teaching and Learning Commons Institutes, we were looking to improve the teaching and learning experience for CPASS online instructors and students,” Bailey said. “As we were working with course builders and preparing them to create and teach online courses, we decided to formalize our process into a resource that could be expanded to all current and future course builders in our college. We also wanted to create something that could be used by our teaching instructors throughout the term as they managed their online courses.”
Sean Bulger, CPASS associate dean for graduate and online education, explains the importance of instructional support. “The COVID-19 pandemic required us to take a critical look at the instructional supports that we had in place for our full-time and part-time faculty who are teaching their courses in online and blended formats. As evidenced by the systems and processes highlighted in their presentation, Beth and Michele now have us positioned ahead of the curve on this critical issue.”
Through their poster, attendees learned about the CPASS online outer and inner framework and communication strategies that inspire a culture based on quality, consistency and a positive engaging student and instructor experience.
Attendees toured different parts of the CPASS online course development process. They interacted with the poster through H5P Hotspots and Kewar Codes. “Attendees left our poster with the tools and resources needed to develop quality online courses at their own institution or organization,” Bailey said.
Korgeski says access to the resources are an important aspect of users’ success. “One of our goals with presenting this poster was to make our CPASS online process become an open education resource that others could look to as they begin the journey to develop quality online education,” she said. “Most of the content and associated templates in the poster and shared resources are licensed under a Creative Commons License. This means that attendees are free to share and adapt these materials to fit their own needs.”
Korgeski explains that the "Trust the Climb" theme for their poster was inspired by the WVU Mountaineer football team's slogan. "We compared ourselves, on a different scale, of course, to a new coaching staff that presented a fresh way of doing things and asked for trust among its stakeholders."
Bailey added, "Making changes to our online education design and delivery processes did take trust on our faculty's part. But with that trust came innovation and positive change to serve our students in the best way possible."
Based on the positive feedback received from their poster presentation in November, Bailey and Korgeski were recently invited to present at the Quality Matters “Quality in Action” conference that is scheduled on April 29, 2022. Quality in Action is a one-day virtual conference focused on faculty and instructional designers. Like their poster presentation, they will present an interactive session that will include information and takeaways that participants can use right away.