OEMC Course Proposal Exemplar
Updated December 2021
This document offers guidance regarding what members of GVSU’s Online Education and Microcredential Council (OEMC) look for in a clear, well-articulated new/change course curriculum proposal to offer/move a course to a hybrid and/or fully online delivery format. This exemplar only addresses aspects of the “Online Rationale” section of the New or Change Course Proposal.
General Considerations
- Be detailed. Don’t use jargon. Please ensure all proposal content and MOE descriptions are clear to faculty outside your discipline.
- Copy/paste content between proposals ONLY when it’s truly meaningful and applicable to more than one proposal/course.
- Proposals should be specific to each syllabus of record. Address the specific course content and provide clear information for how the instructor will facilitate hybrid and/or online teaching and learning.
- List and address each method of evaluation in the syllabus of record separately, including how each will be facilitated and assessed in a hybrid and/or online format.
- Consider reviewing the following approved proposals in SAIL, as examples of what the OEMC is looking for: ACC 616 (Log #: 12023), CJ/EDF 365 (Log # 11957), SPA 320 (Log # 11875), and NUR 414 (Log# 11918).
Definitions
GVSU currently identifies three forms of course delivery: traditional, hybrid, and online (see “Definitions” on the OEMC webpage).
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TRADITIONAL (OR FACE-TO-FACE): The standard in-class course. Typically, an instructor and students come to a regular meeting space a fixed number of times per week. There are exceptions (e.g., independent studies, clinical rotations, Master’s theses, etc.), but the expectation is that any content delivery/instruction is done face-to-face with the student.
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HYBRID: A course in which the instructor deliberately and purposefully replaces face-to-face instruction with online instruction. A hybrid course is one that requires purposeful use of online instructional strategies in lieu of coming to class. This does not include use of online methods to replace absence due to illness, snow days, etc.
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ONLINE: A course where the instructor has replaced all in-class instruction with online instruction. Students and instructors never come to class. Online courses can be either synchronous (virtually meeting at the same time), or more commonly, asynchronous (students and instructor interact with course material at different times).
Course Capacity
Based on research and GVSU's commitment to active learning and student engagement, the OEMC recommends a course cap of 20-25 for hybrid/online courses. This is a recommendation and not a rule. If the proposed course cap exceeds this course cap recommendation, in the "Online Rationale" section below please be sure to address how active learning, student engagement, and assessment will be facilitated for all students in the course.
Course Capacity: If the proposed course capacity in the new or change course proposal exceeds the OEMC’s recommendations, proposers will need to respond to the following question.
QUESTION: As the proposed course capacity exceeds the OEMC’s recommendation of 20-25, please explain how faculty will maintain contact with and support all learners’ academic needs throughout the course.
MODEL EXAMPLE #1: Even though the proposed section size (30) is slightly larger than the recommended cap (20-25) for online/hybrid delivery, we believe the 5 more potential students will not impose any additional burden for instructors. Various tools available on Blackboard can be helpful, such as auto-grading for minor assignments, and/or multiple-choice questions in the exams. Regular announcements and reminders as well as open office hours will also be employed.
MODEL EXAMPLE #2: For live sessions (either for hybrid or online synchronous), students will be placed into smaller discussion groups that will meet for a portion of the planned time to afford the instructor time to provide focused attention. Additionally, instructor feedback will be provided weekly and students will be assigned a “study group” with whom they will work throughout the semester, with frequent check-in emails sent by the instructor.
New/Change Course Proposal Model Responses
*The model responses for questions 1 and 2 below are based on responses from approved change course proposals and are shared with permission.
- Describe the online course organization for content delivery, including what pedagogical strategies, Blackboard tools, and other technologies that will be used to support active student learning and engagement.
MODEL RESPONSE: This course is designed to support students' learning of [focus of the course] through varied content and experiential learning as well as regular student-faculty interactions. Some examples include 1) small and whole class asynchronous and, when possible synchronous, discussions connected to readings and viewings; 2) the use of weekly learning modules to guide students’ learning; 3) area experts and professionals sharing through guest panels and/or lectures; 4) engaging in examinations of case studies; and, 5) recorded lectures and third-party videos (e.g., TED Talks, film clips, etc.).
To ensure active learning, the instructor will also generate weekly content/learning units to guide students' learning, send regular announcements and reminders, regularly respond to students' emails, host weekly virtual office hours, provide on-going feedback on completed assignments, and plan for consistent opportunities for students to synchronously and asynchronously engage with their peers and instructor throughout the semester.
In the fully online format of this course, Blackboard discussion boards and/or synchronous whole and/or small group sessions can be used to facilitate discussions connected to assigned readings/viewings. Synchronous sessions can be facilitated using Zoom, Collaborate, and/or Google Meet. Educational professionals, local and elsewhere, can be invited to share their learning and engage with students through synchronous panel and/or lecture experiences (e.g., Zoom, Collaborate, Google Meet). When possible, these professionals can also create pre-recorded video-based presentations and materials that can be shared with students via links, to be viewed asynchronously. Case studies can be shared via Blackboard in text and/or video based formats with assigned small groups working to examine, analyze, and discuss cases. Additionally, students can share their learning with the instructor and peers, doing so through tools such as private journals, discussion boards, and Flipgrid. Finally, recorded lectures can be posted and viewed by students with the potential for built-in assessments in Panopto and/or Blackboard tests/quizzes that align with lecture content.
1a. If this course will also be offered in a hybrid format, what activities will be accomplished during face-to-face meetings?
MODEL RESPONSE: The first face-to-face meeting in this course would be used to help orient students to the format of the course on the LMS. This is one of the first courses taken by students admitted to the [name of] program so it would also be used to introduce students to their instructor, who is part of the [program] faculty they will be working with throughout the program.
Other face-to-face meetings during the semester will be used to conduct skill-based assessments and/or proctor exams. This way we will be able to ensure academic integrity for the most heavily weighted scores of the semester.
All other meetings will be held online. Lectures will be delivered online using Panopto recordings with embedded quizzes and interactive modules. Asynchronous discussions will be held to allow students to interact with each other as well as the instructor. Quizzes, exams, case studies and other assignments will be provided and submitted through Blackboard as well. Office hours will be held on virtually to offer students an opportunity to ask questions and interact further with the instructor.
- Copy and paste the Methods of Evaluation (MOEs) from the Syllabus of Record (SOR). Then, for EACH MOE, (i) briefly explain what the MOE is, (ii) discuss how technology will be used to support the online delivery of this MOE, (iii) discuss how technology will be used to evaluate student learning of this MOE, and (iv) discuss how technology will be used to maintain student academic integrity.
As stated in the syllabus of record, the methods of evaluation for this course are:
Participation
Formal Written Compositions
Homework
Journals
Oral presentations
Podcast
Oral Exams
Quizzes
Cultural Activities
All of these MOEs will have their instructions and rubrics posted in Blackboard in an organized and clear manner. Lastly, those students who have access to campus despite being online, will be able to use the resources that our Language Resource Center (MAK D-2-221) has to offer for recordings and digital homework, including programs such as: DiLL, Pixton, GarageBand, and green screens.
Participation: This will be assessed via online discussion forums that students will have to do weekly. These forums will be a combination of written and video submissions.
Formal Written Compositions: Students will write a total of 3 compositions. Students will write their compositions in a Google Doc that they will share with me before they start writing. This way, I will be able to closely monitor their writing process and offer feedback along the way. Having their compositions in Google Doc will also make it easy for students to share their compositions among themselves and offer peer feedback.
Homework: Homework are those assignments connected to course modules and will be submitted and assessed via Blackboard.
Journals: I have already created an online journal with Google Slides Master that my current in-person students are already using. Students write weekly on this journal and since I was the one giving each one of them the link, they don't need to share it with me again throughout the semester since I have direct access to it. This allows me to check that they are writing 3 times a week (as they are supposed to) instead of writing everything at the last minute and submitting a Word document or physical paper in which I have no way to know if they wrote it on different days or not.
Oral presentations: Students will create presentations using selected software (e.g., Powerpoint, Google Slides, Prezi) to share their language and cultural knowledge; they will record their presentations in Panopto or do it live if we have a synchronous session.
Podcast: Students will create their own podcast episodes to demonstrate their learning of specific course content. They have been doing this online already and outside of class. They can use any free software they prefer, but I always recommend GarageBand or recording it on Zoom.
Oral Exams: Oral exams all students to demonstrate proficiency in the target language and will be conducted synchronously in a one-on-one Zoom meeting with me. Students will be able to schedule the exam whenever it works best for them.
Quizzes: Any written quiz/exam will be done online using Blackboard's Lockdown Browser (although written exams are not heavily weighted, and formative assessment and collaborative projects will be much more important in this course).
Cultural Activities: These are out-of-class activities and events students attend to learn more about the target language and culture. Students will have the flexibility to attend cultural activities that they find in their community and report back by creating a short presentation that they will post in our community Padlet page. I will also provide opportunities for students to learn about cultural aspects of the Hispanic world online if they can't attend an event in person. For example, the website LinguaMeeting offers 40-minute videos that explain cultural traditions from different Spanish speaking countries.
- In a hybrid/online version of this course, what tools/resources will be utilized to ensure students’ accessibility to course content (e.g., documents, videos, educational technologies, course tools, methods of evaluation) as well as active learning and engagement? Select all that apply.
In this section, please use the dropdown menu to select the tools that will be employed in this course to support students’ accessibility to course content and active learning/engagement. Please only select tools that will actually be used and list any additional tools/resources in the “other” box, as applicable.