From Certification to Evaluation: Using the CVC-OEI Course Design Rubric as a Model for the Continuous Process Improvement for Online Programs

Presented by:

• Melvin Cobb, Professor, Long Beach City College
• Hussam Kashou, PhD, Assoc. Dean, Online Learning & Educational Technology, Long Beach City College
• Michael Scott Robertson, Online Education Faculty Coordinator (2020-2022), Associate Professor of Anthropology, Long Beach City College

Speaker Bios:

• Melvin Cobb has been a full-time faculty member at Long Beach City College since 2004. He teaches in the Computer and Office Studies department and oversees the Computer Proficiencies for Academic Success curriculum. In addition, he served as the Faculty Coordinator for Online Education for seven years. Prior to teaching, Melvin served as Director of Online Education at Rio Hondo Community College where he coordinated Region II of the California Virtual Campus, a grant project commissioned to assist California community colleges develop online programs. Melvin is the recipient of the LBCC 2017 Distinguished Online Educator Award.
• Hussam Kashou attained his Ph.D. in Educational Policy & Leadership specializing in Educational Technology and Educational Psychology from The Ohio State University (OSU) where he has over 15 years experience in various academic and leadership roles. Since 2014, Dr. Kashou has been the Assoc. Dean of Online Learning & Educational Technology (OLET) at Long Beach City College (LBCC) which serves over 35,000 students (21,000 FTES). At LBCC, he oversees and leads OLET which includes Online Education, the Instructional Technology Development Center, and Educational Technology Support Services.
• Michael Scott Robertson is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Long Beach City College (LBCC) and is currently serving as the institution’s Online Education Faculty Coordinator, facilitating faculty professional development for online learning since Spring 2020. While working with colleagues, he often draws upon his anthropological training by reframing technological questions as human questions. In addition, Michael is a Co-Lead Facilitator for the LBCC Online Course Cultural Curriculum Audit-the flagship student equity seminar for faculty. In this role, he has worked with an amazing team to plan, develop, and facilitate a home-grown program for over 300 faculty over 2 years.

Session Info:

Prior to the pandemic, the Office of Online Learning and Educational Technology at Long Beach City College was in the process of assisting faculty to prepare courses to participate in the Online Education Initiative course exchange by bringing them into alignment with the standards denoted in the CVC-OEI Course Design Rubric. However, the pandemic compelled the department to reflect on the online program as a whole and necessitated a change in how courses were designed, faculty were trained, and how online instruction was evaluated. The pandemic highlighted the deficiencies and gaps in all aspects of the online education program and prompted the staff to ask key questions such as:
• How can the training program be revised to accommodate faculty schedules as well as the need to adhere to social distancing constraints?
• Which training formats work best to help faculty empathize with online students and better understand their situations?
• How can we revise antiquated evaluation tools used by the institution to assess online instruction more effectively?
Reflection upon these questions revealed the need for a complete revision of resources in order to meet the plethora of challenges the college was faced with. The result was a successful collaboration between the Academic Senate, the administration, the faculty union, students, and classified support staff. The all-inclusive effort gave rise to the development of an effective yet flexible organized system of standards-based training with its foundations rooted in the CVC-OEI Course Design Rubric. This presentation will discuss the process Long Beach City College used to marshal it’s resources in order to meet student and faculty needs. It will also describe a template that can be utilized by other community colleges to assess the design and effectiveness of online courses as well as enhance the curriculum used to train online instructors.

Session Outcomes:

• Incorporate the CVC-OEI Course Design Rubric into all online faculty trainings and resources.
• Identify specific ways the CVC-OEI rubric can be used to enhance online course design and development.
• Utilize the CVC-OEI Course Design Rubric to develop tools that can be used to evaluate online instruction

Session Resources:

• From Certification to Evaluation COBB 1
• From Certification to Evaluation COBB – 7-1-22 – Cobb_Online_Course_Checklist
• From Certification to Evaluation COBB – 7-1-22 – Cobb_Original Peer-Obsv-Reprort
• From Certification to Evaluation COBB – 7-1-22 – Cobb_Student-eval-online-teaching