OLC Effective Practices

Quality in Online Education

These awards recognize successful efforts that help make quality online education accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at any time, and provide an opportunity to recipients to share effective techniques, strategies, and practices in online education.

Recipients will be recognized at the next OLC conference (Innovate or Accelerate) with a commemorative plaque, will receive a complimentary ticket to the OLC Awards & Leadership Ceremony and Reception at the conference, and will be given the opportunity to present a webinar on the effective practice during the following year.

Nominations and Submissions

The Effective Practice Awards are evaluated on five primary criteria:

Learning Effectiveness: The practice demonstrates effectiveness in producing learning outcomes, which are consistent with learner needs and representative of the distinctive quality of the institution.

Scale: The practice offers the best possible educational value to learners and supports achieving capacity enrollment.

Access: The practice has improved access to education by expanding opportunities and/or reducing barriers.

Faculty Satisfaction: The practice has maintained a high level of faculty satisfaction.

Student Satisfaction: Learners who are impacted by the practice express satisfaction with their learning experience.|

Materials required for submission:

  • A detailed description of the Effective Practice that provides evidence of how the practice meets the award criteria as well as estimated costs and any equipment needed to support the practice.
  • Supporting documentation demonstrating practice development, implementation, and/or outcomes. Documentation may include but is not limited to assessment data, web address and/or screenshots, sample course pages, videos, or other evidence of quality.
  • Three letters of support demonstrating how this practice addresses the five evaluation criteria.

Timeline of Important Dates:
June 10, 2019: Nominations due by 11:59pm ET
August 2, 2019: Nominees notified of award decisions
September 25, 2019: Deadline for award recipients to register for OLC Accelerate conference*
November 19, 2019: Awards & Leadership Ceremony and Reception at OLC Accelerate, 5-7pm ET*

*Conference attendance is not required to accept the award. If attending, registration must be completed by the deadline. Unless specified in the award, conference expenses are not included. All award recipients will be provided with a complimentary ticket to the Awards & Leadership Ceremony and Reception if attending the conference.

See 2018 OLC Effective Practice Award Winners (and previous years)

For additional information, please contact:

Lynette O’Keefe,
Director, Research Center
Online Learning Consortium
Email: OLCawards@onlinelearning-c.org

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