Online Course Peer Review

Ready or not, here it is! The older I get, the faster summers seem to fly by. Still, this is always an exciting time of the year. A quick peer review update:

Online course peer review is starting its third year at LSC. Since Barry Dahl introduced the peer review concept to LSC online faculty in 2004, 35 online courses have been reviewed, 29 differentfaculty have been through the process,and 25 have been trained in as peer reviewers (5 trained in just last week). Interest in this voluntary and confidentialprocess continues to gain momentum, especially as professional development plans are due and faculty evaluations are scheduled (a peer review looks great in a portfolio)!

So why have we implemented the peer review process and what has made it so successful? As an AQIP (Academic Quality Improvement Program) institution, LSC is committed to continuously improving in all areas. Being that online learning is relatively new, and few online instructors have ever taken a high-quality online course to model their own courses after (our professorsdidn’t teach online!), peer review helps to ensure and encourage quality. Even more exciting is that the process naturally leads to the sharing of ideas between faculty. It is always helpful to learn of what other faculty are successfully doing in their courses, how they implement different course activities, etc. This sharing of ideas helps to keep the challenge of reaching our students fresh and exciting. When instructors are having fun, students will too, right?!

Watch for new postings to this blog weekly during the academic year!