Design Standards
Designing your Course to Meet Quality Standards
ATC subscribes to the Quality Matters (QM) Rubric Standards as guidelines for developing new online courses and as a strategy for improving existing courses.
You will find reference to the QM Standards throughout this site. An overview of each standard with links to further information is provided in the bulleted list below. To receive a PDF copy of the fully annotated version of the Quality Matters rubric, complete with strategies and examples for meeting each standard for online course design, contact Cindy Mersereau at cmersereau@uwf.edu.
The rubric serves as an excellent checklist as you design your online course.
Design Checklist
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Introduce and welcome students to your course -
QM: Standard 1
Course Overview and Introduction
A well-planned, detailed course overview and introduction guides students through the design of the course and helps them understand course expectations. It is your opportunity to begin to build a community of learners as soon as a course begins. It can also help reduce the number of emails with questions related to navigating the course, locating course materials, turning in assignments, testing procedures, etc.
QM General Standard 1 states: The overall design of the course is made clear to the student at the beginning of the course.
Design Checklist for Course Overview and Introduction:
- create clear instructions that tell students how to get started and where to find various components in your online course
- here is an example of a standardized online orientation - modify to fit your course
- here is a standardized schedule of activities/assignments - modify to fit your course
- write a statement that introduces students to the purpose of the course and to its components
- compose clear netiquette expectations to your students for online discussions, email and other forms of communication
- create an appropriate self-introduction for your online students
- develop an activity that provides students an opportunity to introduce themselves to their classmates
- explain information about preparation and prerequisite knowledge clearly to your students
- state minimum technical skills required for the course clearly to your students
Resources for Quality Matters Standard 1: Course Overview and Introduction
- Link your students to Gear Up for Online Learning, an Online Campus/ATC Resource for tips about learning online at UWF
- For more information on icebreaker activities, visit this article
- Virginia Shea's Core Rules of Netiquette
- Provide additional guidance like the 10 Most Important Things students should do during their first week of class
- create clear instructions that tell students how to get started and where to find various components in your online course
Develop measurable and appropriate learning objectives -
QM: Standard 2Learning Objectives (Competencies)
Whether you are developing a new online course or improving a current course, writing effective Student Learning Objectives (or Outcomes) is critical to developing a pedagogically sound, functioning course. Appropriate time should be spent in the beginning of course design deciding what you want students to learn. Clarifying intended learning objectives provides a basis for determining teaching activities and assessment strategies.
QM General Standard 2 states: Learning objectives are clearly stated and explained. They assist students in focusing their efforts in the course.
Alignment: This standard is included in Alignment. (Critical course components work together to ensure that students achieve the desired learning outcomes.)
Design Checklist for Learning Objectives:
- create measurable course-level learning objectives
- create measurable lesson, module or unit-level learning objectives
- develop clearly written learning objectives from the student's perspective
- develop clearly written instructions that guide students in meeting learning objectives
- construct learning objectives appropriate for the course level
UWF - Voices of Experience
Dr. Nancy Hastings, Assistant Professor - Engineering and Computer Technology Department, and UWF's Faculty QM Scholar, shares strategies and best practices for constructing course- and module-level objectives and clearly articulating your course learning objectives to your online students, in the following archived Elluminate session:
The link below leads to a PDF document which illustrates how Dr. Hastings improved the way she communicates lesson level objectives to her online students, based on QM design standard 2.
Resources for Quality Matters Standard 2: Learning Objectives
- ATC Handout - Bloom's Taxonomy - (rtf)
- Bloom's Revised - Bloom's Taxonomy Blooms Digitally*
- Writing SLOs - UWF CUTLA website
- Additional CUTLA Resources - Writing and Assessing Student Learning Outcomes
- Park University - Quick Tips for Writing Learning Objectives
- A Clear Guide to Writing Objective Statements - (pdf)
*Churches, A. 2007, Educational Origami, Bloom's and ICT Tools, retrieved from http://techlearning.com/article/8670
Develop appropriate assessments to measure student performance -
QM: Standard 3Assessment and Measurement
Developing effective assessments that validate the achievement of specific Student Learning Objectives (or Outcomes) is critical to developing a pedagogically sound, functioning course. Once you have decided what you want students to learn, you must then determine and develop what the students must do to demonstrate that they have, in fact, learned what is stated in the learning objectives. Clear learning objectives provide the basis for determining assessment strategies.
QM General Standard 3 states: Assessment strategies use established ways to measure effective learning, evaluate student progress by reference to stated learning objectives, and are designed to be integral to the learning process.
Alignment: This standard is included in Alignment. (Critical course components work together to ensure that students achieve the desired learning outcomes.)
Design Checklist for Assessment and Measurement:
- Explain how assessments are "Aligned" with learning objectives.
- Select/develop appropriate assessment tools for each learning outcome.
- Succinctly explain the grading policy for your course.
- Explain the criteria used in evaluating your student's work and participation.
- Develop sequenced, varied, and appropriate assessment that will validate the learning objectives in your course.
- Design practice and/or self-check assignments for your course.
UWF - Voices of Experience
In the following archived Elluminate session Dr. Jane Halonen, Dean of CAS, and John Crane from ATC present effective assessment strategies and talk about the importance of aligning assessment activities to stated course learning objectives.
Resources for Quality Matters Standard 3: Assessment and Measurement
How to develop:
- Effective Multiple-Choice Questions.
- Effective True-False Questions.
- Effective Matching Questions.
- Effective Short-Answer Questions.
- The e-Portfolio as Effective Assessment.
- Alternative Assessments.
- "Authentic" Assessments.
Choose relevant and appropriate resources and materials -
QM: Standard 4Resources and Materials
Based on your learning objectives, you begin to gather the content for your course. Content may include videos, presentations, books, e-reserves, websites, simulations and anything authored by you which is added to the course website. While its tempting to include flash files that may jump out on a page - it's important to keep the content relevant to the course and the objectives.
QM General Standard 4 states: Instructional materials are sufficiently comprehensive to achieve stated course objectives and learning outcomes and are prepared by qualified persons competent in their fields.
Alignment: This standard is included in Alignment. (Critical course components work together to ensure that students achieve the desired learning outcomes.)
Design Checklist for Resources and Materials:
- Identify instructional materials which contribute to the achievement of learning objectives
- Describe the relationship between instructional materials and learning activities
- Analyze instructional materials for depth, breadth and currency
- Cite sources of materials and resources in your course
UWF Voices of Experience
The following recorded Elluminate session features Dr. Enid Sisskin, from the School of Allied Health and Life Sciences. Dr. Sisskin shares her strategies for providing robust and up-to-date resources and materials to her online students.
Resources for Quality Matters Standard 4: Resources and Materials
- ATC Website Resources page
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The Orange Grove Digital Repository
- See examples of popular learning objects (pdf) from The Orange Grove
- Merlot Database
- Textbook Publisher materials, self-created materials
- UWF Library Copyright Tutorial
- Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video (pdf) (Source: Center for Social Media, http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/)
Engage your online students -
QM: Standard 5Learner Engagement
Engaging online learners is critical to the success of online courses.
QM General Standard 5 states: Meaningful interaction between the instructor and students, among students, and between students and course materials is employed to motivate students and foster intellectual commitment and personal development.
Alignment: This standard is included in Alignment. (Critical course components work together to ensure that students achieve the desired learning outcomes.)
Design Checklist for Learner Engagement:
- confirm that your learning activities align with your learning objectives
- construct learning activities that foster instructor-student, content-student, and student-student interaction
- clearly state standards for your responsiveness and availability (turn-around time for emails, discussions, grades, etc)
- outline requirements for student interactions
Resources for Quality Matters Standard 5: Learner Engagement
- See Tools to Engage
- Training sessions to enhance learner engagement
- Strategies for Engaging the Online Student Using the LMS (pdf), Designing for Success
Enhance student learning through course technology -
QM: Standard 6Course Technology
Use technologies to enhance and improve learning, not to replicate traditional teaching methods.
QM General Standard 6 states: Course navigation and the technology employed in the course foster student engagement and ensure access to instructional materials and resources.
UWF - Voices of Experience
In the following archived Elluminate session, Dr. Dave Dawson, Instructor for the Department of Engineering and Computer Technology, provides examples and shares his strategies for using course technologies to foster student engagement and ensure access to instructional materials and resources.
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Follow the link to view the session: Course Technology that Supports and Engages Online Learners
Design Checklist for Course Technology:
- Choose appropriate tools and media to support the learning objectives and deliver the content of the course
- Incorporate tools and media to support student engagement guide students to be active learners
- Create a course structure with logical, consistent and efficient navigation throughout the online components
- Provide ready access to the technology students are required to use in the course
- Use available technologies that meet current standards of delivery modes for all course components
- Provide detailed instructions on how to access course resources at a distance
- Incorporate available tools and media into course design
Resources for Quality Matters Standard 6: Course Technology
- D2L tools
- Elluminate Live!
- Narrated PowerPoints using Adobe Presenter
- Developing video/audio podcasts
- Developing graphics & animation
- Selecting resources from repositories such as Merlot
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Support your online students -
QM: Standard 7Learner Support
When developing your online course, it's important to put yourself in the role of the student. Ask yourself, "What can I do to the make the course, it's navigation, the content, assignments and activities beneficial to the learning outcomes?" One way to do this is by providing the right resources - beyond the text and multi media learning objects. In many cases, students learning from a distance are truly geographically dispersed - so visiting the campus to check out books, or get help writing a paper is not feasible. In addition, accessing the course materials and engaging in dialogue with peers about the subject at hand can be challenging enough.
QM General Standard 7 states: The course facilitates student access to institutional services essential to student success.Design Checklist for Learner Support:
- Identify essential institutional resources which lead to student success
- List and articulate the academic support resources available to UWF students
- Identify the technical support services available for UWF students
- Name several student support resources for UWF students
- Identify helpful discipline or subject related websites or resources which align with instructions for course activities and assignments
Resources for Quality Matters Standard 7: Learner Support
- Link to Gear Up for Online Learning, an Online Campus/ATC Resource
- Online Campus Website (http://onlinecampus.uwf.edu)
- Online Tutoring
- Online Advising
- Online Library Resources
- Online Fee Payments
- Online Bookstore
- Tips for learning online: http://onlinecampus.uwf.edu/class/learning.cfm
- Writing Lab: http://uwf.edu/writelab/
- Student Handbook: http://uwf.edu/studentaffairs/documents/handbook.pdf
- UWF Library Online Tutorials: http://library.uwf.edu/Research/OnlineTutorials/
- Student Success Programs: http://uwf.edu/StudentSuccess/
- Information Technology Services (ITS) Helpdesk
- Elearning Resources (http://elearning.uwf.edu)
Meet UWF accessibility requirements -
QM: Standard 8Accessibility
When developing your course, it is important to ensure your content is accessible to all students no matter their impairment. Impairments may include blindness or color blindness, deafness, inability to use a mouse or keyboard, etc. Many people think that you must create a text only version of your content to meet accessibility requirements. You can develop a visually appealing and interactive course while maintaining accessibility requirements and standards. A text-only version should be a last resort.
QM General Standard 8 states: The face-to-face and online course components are accessible to all students.
Design Checklist for Accessibility:
- Insert this ADA statement on syllabus (required for all courses):
- The Student Disability Resource Center (SDRC) at the University of West Florida supports an inclusive learning environment for all students. If there are aspects of the instruction or design of this course that hinder your full participation, such as time-limited exams, inaccessible web content, or the use of non-captioned videos and podcasts, please notify the instructor or the SDRC as soon as possible. You may contact the SDRC office by e-mail at sdrc@uwf.edu or by phone at (850) 474-2387. Appropriate academic accommodations will be determined based on the documented needs of the individual.
- Link to eLearning's (Desire2Learn) ADA statement: http://www.desire2learn.com/access/
- Link to eLearning's Accessibilty Resource Guides for users: http://www.desire2learn.com/access/resources/
- Links
- Do not use hyperlinks that read"click here," but are meaningful. Screen readers have an option to list and read all hyperlinks on a page. A list of twenty items all reading "click here" would not be instructive.
- Text
- Research shows that sans-serif fonts are more easily read on computer monitors than are serif fonts.
- Black text on a white background is recommended.
- Use only one font.
- Limit use of all CAPS, italics or bold text.
- Do not use underlining for emphasis (it can be mistaken for a link).
- Graphics (including charts)
- All graphics should have alternative text (alt tags) for ADA Section 508 compliance. Screen readers are then able to read what the image is.
- The text information in the alt tag associated with an image/graphic should, when possible, communicate the same information as its image/graphic.
- Color
- There should be a high contrast between the background color and the font color.
- Avoid extremely bright colors as a background color, it makes text very hard to read.
- Animation
- Refrain from using animated or blinking images, text or cursors. These can cause seizures for some people.
- Video and Audio
- Provide close-captioning or have accompanying text-based scripts for all video.
- Provide text versions of all audio files (i.e., add notes to narrated PowerPoint).
Resources for Quality Matters Standard 8: Accessibility
- Work with Student Success when needs arise for individual students
- Insert this ADA statement on syllabus (required for all courses):
To learn more about the overall Quality Matters program at UWF, visit http://uwf.edu/atc/QM/ or contact Cindy Mersereau at cmersereau@uwf.edu.
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