MCTC Quality Assurance Faculty Support

The KCTCS Online Quality Assurance (QA) Workgroup convened from September 2019 to November 2019 to address the following set of charges established by the President’s Leadership Team (PLT):

• Establish the criteria for certification, including whether there should be one “blanket” certification, or stackable levels of certification.
• Write a definition of the attributes of faculty new to online learning and establish how to track faculty progress as they gain mastery in the skills necessary to become a quality online instructor.
• Develop and implement a faculty online teaching orientation and certification.
• Recommend a quality review rubric for all online courses.

Quality review rubric for all online courses

The workgroup recommends that the rubric in effect for the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program, in its entirety, be the quality review rubric for all online courses.

Minimum criteria to meet QA for online courses

The workgroup recommends that the minimum criteria to meet quality assurance standards, referred to as the “KCTCS essential standards,” will consist of the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program Rubric’s 14 Compulsory Standards plus those in “Accessibility of Course Design” (Standards 1.13-1.16) and “Accessibility and Technical Factors” (Standards 4.13-4.17).

Definition of faculty NEW to online learning

The workgroup recommends the following definition of “faculty new to online learning”:

• Has never taught a fully online course for KCTCS, -OR-
• Has not taught an online course with KCTCS for more than three years.

Implementation and enforcement

The workgroup recommends that:

• Each college will develop and maintain a policy by which all online faculty have completed the KCTCS training requirements for Online Teaching before offering classes in BW mode.
• Each college will develop and maintain a policy by which all courses offered in BW mode have been approved as having met the standards of Quality Assurance adopted by KCTCS or the local college.
• Each college’s Chief Academic Officer shall be responsible for ensuring the implementation of the college’s policy for Online Faculty Training and Course Quality Assurance Approval.
• A copy of each college’s policy should be kept on record at the KCTCS Office of Online Learning.