Online Course Peer Review

A couple of years ago, the LSC peer review team leaders had a brainstorm session and developed a list of online course best practices.  This list can be found in the upper left hand corner of this blog.  It’s good info!

While “surfing the web” (that sounds so outdated!), I recently found an excellent resource from Las Positas College in California:  http://lpc1.clpccd.cc.ca.us/lpc/blackboard/best_practices/  Their “Best Practices in Designing Online Courses” document is similar to LSC’s online course peer review rubric.  It contains excellent information and examples of activities and design techniques.  Some of the most noteable from the site, in my opinion:

• Written material should be divided into short, readable (”chunked”) sections with links to subsequent pages, if necessary.  PowerPoint presentations - with or without audio narration - should be chunked and 5-10 minutes in duration.  Podcast lectures should be chunked and the same length.
• For those students who get excited about a topic and want to learn more on their own, provide links to websites that you think will be helpful.  Conversely, you can also provide links that will help remediate students who struggle with a topic.
• Use surveys to gather feedback from your students at various times throughout the semester.  Use the feedback to improve activities, as needed.