Online Course Assessment: Course Review Documents & Resources

Course Review Process: This document lays out the timeline and requirements for the development, design, and review of both new and existing online courses. It also provides examples of review team make up.

Online/Hybrid Course Request Form [PDF]  [Word]: This form is designed to provide the academic department and/or school, as well as the instructional design staff, information about upcoming online courses.

Readiness Inventories: These questionnaires for the various Learning Management Systems, including Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, and D2L, are to be taken by the faculty wanting to teach online. These surveys will provide both the faculty member and the instructional design team with information about current LMS capabilities.

• Canvas Readiness Inventory

• Blackboard Readiness Inventory

• Moodle Readiness Inventory

• D2L Readiness Inventory (forthcoming)

Course Planning Template: This chart can be used by faculty in conjunction with the instructional design team to help plan out the course development prior to loading content and assessments into the LMS.

Course Review Rubric: This is the rubric that will be completed by the members of the course review team prior to course launch. For information about each criterion on the rubric, please see the Course Review Rubric with Comments document.

Course Review Process: This document lays out the timeline and requirements for the development, design, and review of both new and existing online courses. It also provides examples of review team make up.

Faculty Self-Assessment Preparing for Online Teaching: This self-assessment for online teaching from Penn State will allow you to evaluate and reflect upon your competencies in key areas of online teaching and provide a baseline of your pedagogical, technical, and administrative skills. As part of your results, you will receive additional guidance/resources for each competency to better prepare you for the online teaching environment.  

Bloom's Taxonomy Verb List - This verb list is useful in helping instructors develop course outcomes within the framework of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

C-RAC Guidelines - The Council of Regional Accrediting Commissions is a collective of seven regional organizations responsible for the accreditation of roughly 3,000 of the nation’s colleges and universities. The goal of the C-RAC Guidelines is to ensure that the institution’s online courses are in line with its mission and values, have robust engagement with and between students, and provide appropriate support for online students both in regards to technology and other services on-campus students receive.

Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) VALUE Rubrics - The Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education (VALUE) rubrics are designed to assess student work in a variety of areas, including written and oral communication, creative thinking, teamwork, ethical thinking, and global learning.

The ADA and Section 504 - The ADA requires that students with disabilities receive appropriate accommodations and support as they access and engage with content in your course. These sites provide information about what the accessibility requirements are and suggestions on how to meet them.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines - UDL is a course design principle that ensures all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to make sure this is the case.

Blackboard Exemplary Course Rubric - This rubric from Blackboard provided the original basis for the Course Review Rubric we’ve created. This is the rubric Blackboard uses to award its Exemplary Course Award every year.

Canvas Online Course Review - This rubric is one that the Canvas community has developed to help with online instruction.

The Open SUNY Course Quality Rubric (OSCQR) - This site provides additional guidance, resources, and rubrics to help ensure online courses are learner-centered and well-designed.

Online Course Quality Indicators - This infographic provides details about various components of creating and teaching online courses, including design, organization, support, clarity, instructor-interaction, peer-interaction, content-interaction, and richness.