Play It: A Game-Based Peer-Review Model for Quality Online Courses

Workshop Session 1

Session Materials

Brief Abstract

Motivate faculty to design quality online learning and teaching through the use of games, project based learning, and a validated quality course assessment rubric.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Nora Scully, San Francisco State University

Co-presenter: Jackson Wilson, San Francisco State University

Dr. Wilson is the Chair of San Francisco State University Academic Senate's Online Education Committee and serves as a faculty fellow for San Francisco State University's online quality control program, Quality Online Learning and Teaching (QOLT). He is also the primary architect of and a faculty for an innovative multi-campus collaborative graduate program which primarily uses a synchronous online format.

Co-presenter: Kurt Daw, San Francisco State University

Kurt Daw is the past President of the Association for Theatre in Higher Eduction, and a former dean of the arts at SF State and the State University of New York at New Paltz. He was the founder of the Department of Theater at Kennesaw State University. He is the author of Acting: Thought into Action and Acting Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, as well as a wide range of other short works on acting and performing. He has spoken widely as a keynoter, presenter and panelist. He is currently working on a new digital edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Co-presenter: Jonathan Lee, San Francisco State University

Jonathan H. X. Lee, PhD, is an associate professor of Asian American studies who specializes in Southeast Asian and Sino-Southeast Asian American studies at San Francisco State University. He received his doctorate in religious studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2009. He is the founder and program cochair of the Asian American Religious Studies section for the American Academy of Religion, Western Region (AAR/WR) conference. His work has been published in Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice; Nidan: International Journal for the Study of Hinduism; Chinese America: History & Perspectives—The Journal of the Chinese Historical Society of America; Empty Vessel: The Journal of the Daoist Arts; Spotlight on Teaching/American Academy of Religion; Asia Pacific Perspectives; Pacific World: Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies; JATI: Journal of Southeast Asian Studies; Amerasia Journal; and other journals and anthologies, both nationally and internationally. His published works include ABC-CLIO’s Encyclopedia of Asian American Folklore and Folklife (2011); Encyclopedia of Asian American Religious Cultures (2015); History of Asian Americans: Exploring Diverse Roots (2015); and Chinese Americans: History and Culture of a People (2016). In addition, he is author of Cambodian American Experiences: Histories, Communities, Cultures, and Identities (2010, reprint 2015); Asian American Identities and Practices: Folkloric Expressions in Everyday Life (2014); The Age of Asian Migration: Continuity, Diversity, and Susceptibility, volume 1 (2014); and Southeast Asian Diaspora in the United States: Memories and Visions, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (2015). He has published extensively on Chinese, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Chinese-Southeast Asian, and Asian American histories, folklore, cultures, and religions. Currently, Lee serves as editor-in-chief of Chinese America: History & Perspectives, a peer-review journal published by the Chinese Historical Society of America.

Extended Abstract

Workshop Overview
This workshop will share solutions and strategies for developing and conducting a Quality Online Teaching and Learning (QOLT) program that positively transforms teaching with technology faculty development at a large public California university. In alignment with several high-profile initiatives related to student access and academic success, a team of faculty were given the creative challenge to cultivate a Quality Online Learning and Teaching (QOLT) initiative by analyzing their own courses, providing feedback to each other through self and peer review cycles, and then sharing their success with others. Fundamental to this initiative is exploring how to transform and connect with student-learning experiences while ensuring quality.

OUTCOMES: Play card games and analyze case studies in concert with a three-tiered reflective and analytical design-planning model (self, peer and student). Participants will learn how to:
ïDevelop an intrinsically motivating faculty development quality online course evaluation program and evaluate effectiveness
ïShare and incorporate instructional strategies using a Quality Online Learning and Teaching (QOLT) rubric and QOLT playing card games
ïAnalyze live course designs created by seasoned faculty using a suite of take away tools and instruments.
ïExplore lessons learned and potential "gotchas" from SF State QOLT Faculty Ambassador case studies.

Take-aways: Participants will leave with a matrix to rate your institutional quality assessment plans, and the QOLT Rubrics for self, peer and student review. Additional resources will be provided, such as:
ïDeck of QOLT Playing Cards: including 10 Objectives, 58 sub-objectives and the core 24 objectives to jump start your review,
ïGrab-and-Go list of solutions to quickly add quality to online courses and meet the QOLT objectives,
ïExamples of formative and summative assessment instruments developed by faculty teaching online.

Improving Quality in Online Courses
The Quality Online Learning and Teaching (QOLT) initiative at SF State supports faculty teaching online courses by employing the most effective course design practices, teaching methods, and technology integration strategies. SF State QOLT Faculty Ambassadors, who mentor each other, conduct outreach to departments and present at our annual institute will be joining the workshop to share their expertise and experiences through an in-depth tour of their online course design. A senior instructional design consultant, who has lead the QOLT team will kick off the workshop and facilitate game playing in order for participants to fully experience the QOLT rubric. The Executive Director of Academic Technology, SF State's QOLT sponsor, will align institutional priorities and initiatives with faculty development goals and design.

The initiative integrates the QOLT course evaluation instrument and a three-tiered evaluation process. The evaluation process includes a self-review, peer review, and student review. Courses that meet or exceed the measurements outlined in the QOLT evaluation instrument are granted the honor of "QOLT Certified".
The instrument, developed at the California State University, in the Quality Assurance for Blended and Online program, is a validated rubric for assessing online courses. Informed by existing models of traditional-hybrid-online course evaluation, as well as long-standing research on effective teaching and learning, the instrument contains 58 items across 10 sections that are used to evaluate and inform the quality of online courses.

SF State's quality-assurance goals have been developed by a growing cadre of Faculty Ambassadors who have worked diligently to define a collaborative process for assessing quality of online courses. These ambassadors, acting as mentors and program representatives, have contributed to the successful launch of a QOLT "Faculty Ambassador" professional development program for quality online instruction. They are inspired to share quality critical reflection of online course development with the their peers, who in turn, are thirsty for real world examples from experienced instructors.

Our focus has been on creating consistency of quality among various course modalities using a suite of accessible tools in our Moodle Learning Management System to raise awareness of online teaching and learning best practices and foster Universal Design for Learning principles. Faculty Ambassadors have led small group project-based learning experiences using their own course design as examples to increase faculty collaboration within our QOLT review process. As a result of these engagements the campus has experienced increased use in lecture capture tools, creative academic integrity solutions and increased understanding of the possibility for engaged online learning.

In the workshop, Faculty Ambassadors will tour their courses and highlight design strategies and tools meeting and exceeding the QOLT objectives, while engaging participants in dialogue. Participants will be led through a process of creative inquiry to discover their own process for cultivating quality in their course and faculty development programs by using the QOLT Playing Cards. All workshop materials will be given to workshop participants, so they can directly apply quality to online course development at home.