Distance Learning Development Process
The Mission of Distance Learning
Achieving an academic degree can often transform a student's life. Distance Learning (DL) can offer students flexibility in their educational pursuits and supports the College mission "to provide accessible, affordable, and high-quality education to the people of southern Ohio."
The mission of Distance Learning at Southern State Community College is to support and assess the development and delivery of distance learning to provide high-quality DL courses and programs that reflect continuous review and improvement.
Distance Learning at Southern State
Distance Learning is an educational delivery method used to describe the course and/or program delivery models in which there is some separation between student and instructor. The College supports online, blended/hybrid, and video-enhanced DL delivery methods. Through a college supported Learning Management System, faculty are able to organize course content, communicate with students, and allow for a common DL interface.
Purpose
The purpose of the Distance Learning Course/Program Process is to ensure consistency and quality in the delivery of online, blended/hybrid, and video-enhanced delivery instruction. This document assures the planning, development, and implementation of distance learning activities are in accordance with the mission of the College.
Process
The College's Instructional Technology Committee (ITC) is the central clearinghouse for designing processes, guiding development, and ultimately monitoring quality in distance learning.
The ITC has recommended this eight-step process:
- Exploration – in consultation with colleagues in your department, your division coordinator, and Dean, discuss the rationale for introducing your course or program using distance learning modalities.
- Preparedness (Article XIX Section 19.0415; 19.064) – Developing and delivering a course or program using distance learning modalities takes different skills than traditional face-to-face instruction. Consider your level of preparedness to design the course(s)/program(s) yourself or the readiness to design with the assistance of a professional instructional designer.
- Ownership Interest (Article XIX Section 19.05) – Give consideration to your ownership interests. The College supports employee owned and joint-ownership arrangements.
- Complete Request Forms – Complete and submit the Distance Learning Course/Program Request Form to the Director of Instructional Technology (ITC Chairperson). The ITC will review the request and provide a recommendation to the CAO within 10 business days of the request.
- Course Timeline – Draft a timeline that has clear benchmarks and ensures on-time delivery of the completed course. The ITC recommends a 6-9 month timeline for course development.
- Working Your Plan – stay on task with your timeline. Work with instructional support staff to help meet deadlines and include check-in points with the project team to ask questions, request support, or provide updates.
- Submit Course for Quality Assurance Review – the ITC will establish a team to review the DL course to ensure quality assurance. Course(s) should be submitted to the ITC Chairperson one month prior to registration for the requested semester of course(s) pilot. For example, DL course pilots for Fall 2020 should be submitted by March 1, 2020. This allows time for the course review, feedback, and any course edits.
- Course Pilot – Upon approval of the ITC, the course will be piloted the first semester of delivery and include a design survey to be distributed to students by the fifth week of the semester.
