Standards+for+Teaching+and+Learning+in+CUNY+Online+Program

Standards for Teaching and Learning in the CUNY Online Program Feedback from students suggests that a strong sense of the presence and availability of the instructor every day of the course is more important than any other consideration. However, many other factors affect the quality of student learning, student satisfaction and the reputation of the program in important ways. The factors below are considered essential to a successful course and a successful instructor. Both preparation of new faculty and evaluation of current courses will use these as guidelines. Detailed contact information should be provided by the instructor at the beginning of the course. Some specific times when the instructor can be reached by phone or email should be listed. The instructor should check in on the active parts of their course site and look for email messages from students on a daily basis. Students should expect to receive a response to a question within 24 hours. Faculty should be an active presence on discussion boards and in team projects. The form of the participation can be neutral or directive, but students should know that their instructor is there in the work space. Faculty should post a welcome message at the beginning of the course and include audio as appropriate. Assignment deadlines and testing periods should not be set so that they fall within the typical work day. Instructors should remember that there are students who live in different time zones and, where there are specific end times for activities, indicate the time zone that will apply, e.g. 10:00 PM EST. Instructors should keep track of religious holidays and other observances that might preclude participation for individual students. Asynchronicity is an important feature of our program; it should be honored and respected in all courses and for all assignments. A detailed syllabus, that includes a sequential mapping of course activities, should be available when the course begins and students should be informed promptly concerning deviations from the syllabus. All important course activities should take place within the Blackboard site, not via email or other means except under unusual circumstances. Whenever they log on to the course site, students should always see accurate and current information about course assignments and deadlines The different parts of a course should form a coherent whole, with mechanisms for students to navigate easily from one part to another. Redundant parallel paths should provide convenient access from different starting places to material which interconnects Course banners should be attractive and appropriate for the course content. Efforts should be made to create an attractive course site. Be consistent in the terms and labels that are used for certain kinds of activities and sections of the course. Courses should be designed to take full advantage of the version of Blackboard in use by the program. Courses should be designed to take advantage, as appropriate, of the multimedia capabilities of online work. Graphics and hyperlinks, as well as video and audio should be included. Alternate text should be provided for graphics, audio, and video material, to provide accessibility for vision- or hearing-impaired students. Discussion questions or introductions to discussions should be complex and interesting enough that they engage students at levels of participation sustained across the semester. Discussion questions should be open-ended and provocative— questions which require specific and limited answers should be used for assignments/quizzes. The discussion board should reward active thinking. Instructions and grading schemes for discussions and other group activities should require and provide rewards for (1) students responding to one another and (2) participating in the activity throughout the assignment period, rather than just on the deadline day. There should be variety in assignments to accommodate different learning styles. Rubrics or other detailed guidelines for grading should be provided for all assignments. Expectations of the instructor, especially for activities that will be used in assigning grades, should be described clearly, provided to students at the beginning of the term, and rewards attached to doing what is expected. Students should be informed of how assignments will be weighted in final grades. Students must be informed of their progress with an evaluation of their work at midsemester. Course sites should be free of typographical, grammatical and other errors. All components should be carefully edited for accuracy and completeness. Instructors should check all links to ensure they are in working order prior to the semester. Update all course material each semester; don't rollover assignments without reviewing and updating all links, due dates, and references to other sources that may have changed. Instructors need to understand that if they provide an excellent experience for students, overall retention and satisfaction in the program is enhanced. Likewise, courses that promote mastery of foundation and other skills enhance student success in other courses. Every effort must be made to make different sections of the same course consistent with one another, especially in ways that impact what students learn. Students should be informed about Fair Use guidelines at the beginning of the course and faculty should monitor compliance to the extent possible.
 * Introduction **
 * Presence of the Instructor **
 * Responsiveness to Students’ Circumstances **
 * Content of Course Site **
 * Design of Course Site **
 * Quality of Assignments **
 * Evaluation of Student Work **
 * Accuracy **
 * Relationship to the Concentration as a Whole **
 * Other **


 * return to TABLE of CONTENTS  CUNY Online Instructors Manual: Pedagogy and Practice   **