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OCFDP Participation Guidelines (2008-2009)
Training, course development, and design review for online courses take 4-6 months, depending on faculty members' available time. This means that departments will need to plan their new online offerings ahead of the usual semester scheduling cycle to allow enough time for faculty members to participate in the training and course development/design review process.
The current plan is to have 3 cohorts annually—one starting each semester and one starting in the summer—consisting of an OTT course followed by the course development and design review process. There are 15 seats in each OTT course. DE has resources to fund up to 10 participants as described in the funding section. To increase participation opportunities, the remaining seats are available for faculty supported through their department/college, a grant, or a self-support funded program.
Proposals for new online classes and sections to be taught in a coming semester must be submitted according to the following deadlines to ensure consideration. Proposals are now being accepted for the OCFDP that begins in the Fall 2008 semester. Proposals for the Spring 2009 cohort will be requested this fall.
| Deadline to Submit
Proposal |
OTT Course | Course Development | Design Review | Course Revised
& Ready |
Course First Offered |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 16, 2008 | Summer 2008
(May 19-Jul 11) |
Jul 12, 2008-
Oct 26, 2008 |
Oct 27, 2008-
Nov 21, 2008 |
Dec 19, 2008 | Spring 2009
(Jan 20-May 4) |
| May 30, 2008 | Fall 2008
(Sep 29-Nov 21) |
Dec 1, 2008-
Feb 26, 2009 |
Feb 27, 2009-
Mar 20, 2009 |
Apr 30, 2009 | Summer 2009
(May/Jun-Jul/Aug) |
| Oct 24, 2008 | Fall 2009
(Aug 24-Dec 17) |
Apr 11, 2009-
May 31, 2009 |
Jun 1, 2009-
Jun 30, 2009 |
July 30, 2009 | Fall 2009
(Aug 24-Dec 17) |
Planning and Scheduling Online Courses
Academic departments have full academic oversight for all online courses and programs. The academic department chair initiates plans to teach a course or take a whole program online, ensuring that it is appropriate for online instruction and fits into department and college goals and priorities.
If a department has the resources to support faculty training, course development, and course instruction, the proposal form is used to communicate its plans and schedule faculty for training and development support. If resources are needed from the University for faculty training, course development, and/or course instruction, then the proposal form will also serve as a request for University DE funding. The DE director, , is available for questions by e-mail or at 208.426.1689.
Please note that the two components that support online courses-faculty training and course development/review-do not have to be combined. The training component is appropriate by itself for faculty inexperienced in online instruction who will be teaching a course that has already been developed for online delivery. The course development/review component is appropriate by itself for courses not developed for online delivery that will be taught by a faculty member who has had previous training or experience in online instruction.
Faculty Training
Boise State is committed to providing appropriate training and support for faculty teaching in distance education. All faculty assigned by their academic department to teach online are strongly encouraged to complete the OTT course before teaching online.
Prerequisite Training
The 4-part Blackboard workshop series, or comparable training taken elsewhere, is required prior to beginning the OTT course.
Online Teacher Training (OTT) Course
The OTT course is offered completely online. It explains and models current best practices and effective teaching strategies for online instruction. The course is intensive and designed to provide faculty with the experience of being a student in an upper division or graduate online course. The OTT course has been piloted and tested by Boise State faculty over the last year. The course takes a minimum of 4-8 hours per week to participate in all activities. Faculty members are urged to only agree to take the OTT course when they have sufficient time to be fully involved.
Financial Support
Financial support is explained in the funding section below. Receiving the support is contingent upon:- Completing the 8-week online OTT course.
- Participating in all online OTT discussions and activities in a timely manner as outlined in the OTT syllabus and schedule.
- Submitting all deliverables (plans, documents, Blackboard entries, etc.) to the OTT instructors.
- Completing online feedback questionnaires.
Course Development and Course Design Peer Review
Boise State is committed to assuring that courses and programs taught online meet broadly accepted best practices. In addition, all online courses, must meet appropriate accreditation guidelines. To do this, the optional course development and review process will rely on the Quality Matters (QM) rubric-developed by Maryland Online through a FIPSE grant-that incorporates research, instructional design principles, and accreditation standards.
Online Course Development
Faculty members who are developing new online courses are strongly encouraged to participate in the online course development and design review component of this program. Faculty developers will be able to take part in formal support opportunities as well as to request support from AT instructional designers. In addition, the DE faculty development coordinator will follow up with the faculty regularly to ensure that they are asking for and receiving the support they need while they are in the development process.
Course Design Peer Review
Following course development, new online courses are reviewed for quality design-not content-by a team that includes the instructor, peer reviewers who are experienced online teachers and have received QM training, and an instructional designer. Course design peer reviews will use the QM rubric, which is integrated into both the OTT and the course development process. Peer reviews provide a profile of proposed courses and identify course strengths and weaknesses. Faculty course developers then have time to incorporate feedback from the reviews into final revisions. The final revisions and peer reviews are forwarded to the department chairs, who decide if the courses are ready to be taught online. This process must be completed 4 weeks prior to the beginning of the semester in which a course will be taught.
Financial Support
Financial support is explained in the funding section below. Receiving support is based on:
- Completing online course development with assistance from AT instructional designers and the DE coordinator 8 weeks prior to the beginning of the semester in which the course will be taught.
- Participating in the QM-based course design peer-review pilot process, to be completed 4 weeks prior to the beginning of the semester in which the course will be taught.
- Giving appropriate attention and response to peer-review recommendations.
- Providing feedback about the course development support and the course design peer-review process for improvement.
Ownership of Course Materials
There are limited resources to support the development of courses for online delivery. It is the intent of the University to pay for the development of each specific course one time and that the original developer will share the course with others who are assigned to teach it. Additional instructors should also participate in the OTT prior to teaching an existing course. The document entitled Online Instruction at Boise State: Statement on Intellectual Property Rights (PDF file) is the approach used by Academic Technologies for the development of courses using institutional resources. It will be used to define the ownership of courses developed through the OCFDP.
Course Proposal Form
The OCFDP Proposal form requests information about the faculty member's experience with online education, as well as details about the academic course to be developed.
Process
- The academic department chair, college dean, and assigned instructor determine if the proposed new online course fits into department and college plans and priorities and is appropriate to be taught online.
- The OCFDP Proposal form on the Downloads page is completed.
- The instructor(s), chair, and dean review and sign the form to indicate approval of the course.
- If proposals for a cohort exceed the resources, the proposals will need to be prioritized. If multiple proposals are completed in one department, the chair is asked to prioritize those proposals. Deans are also asked to prioritize the proposals from their college.
- The form is returned to Ann Randall, Distance Education, MS 1120, or electronically to by April 16 for the Summer 2008 OTT course, or May 30 for the Fall 2008 OTT course.
- Completed proposals are reviewed for completeness. Based on available resources, DE makes recommendations to the Extended Studies Dean and Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies for the upcoming cohort. Once the faculty and courses are selected for a given cohort, the department chair and faculty are notified. Please direct any questions about this process by e-mail to at 208.426.4223.
Letter of Agreement
Once selected for a specific OTT or development/review session, the faculty member signs the Letter of Agreement (PDF file) and returns it to Ann Randall within a week after notification.
Distance Education Department
