Online Course Peer Review

When we first launched the peer review process at LSC back in the fall of 2005, the five faculty membersoriginally chosen by their peers to adapt the Quality Matters rubric toLSC’s needs were the only reviewers. To involve more faculty members in this role, the coordinator (Susan Brashaw–me!) sent out an email looking for volunteers. I held a peer reviewer training session for the seven or eightfaculty memberswho expressed interest at that time. During that session, the rubric, annotations, and other peer review documents (found on the left-hand side of this blog) were introduced and volunteers were taken through a review of a course.

Currently, we have a total of seventeen trained faculty peer reviewers, which has proven to be a good working number. Instead of continuing to hold group training sessions, I meet with interested faculty members individually to introduce them to the role of the peer reviewer. Prerequisites? Anyone interested in serving on a peer review team, must first have had one of their own courses reviewed. Reviewers who have participated in at least three or four reviews may choose to lead a review, which entails a bit more responsibility (see the Peer Review Process document at the top left of the blog).

Overwhelmingly, peer reviewers indicate that being involved in the process of a course review is a rewarding experience. It really is a privilege to see what other faculty members are doing in their online courses.