Office of the Provost
Accreditation
Online Course Assessment and Evaluation
Topic: How is the quality of WSU online courses assessed and evaluated?
Challenge/Opportunity: There is a division of responsibility between Academic Outreach and Innovation and colleges/departments who control curriculum and course content and delivery.
Recent actions/outcomes:
- The 2014 Provost’s task force on Assessment in Degrees Offered Online clarified the department’s role as primary in ensuring assessment of online courses is included with all programmatic assessment.
- Implementation of Executive Policy #34, June 23, 2016 specifies that all 100 percent online courses are delivered via WSU Global Campus to ensure consistency in student experience and compliance with all state and federal requirements.
- Online courses are assigned and taught by WSU departmental faculty and employ the same learning outcomes as their face-to-face counterparts.
- Department chairs and directors assign and review faculty teaching online.
- Global Campus provides training and support for faculty teaching online, including instructional design expertise, best practices, and standards.
- All online courses include the same course evaluation as face-to-face courses. Online courses include an additional set of questions regarding the delivery environment. Responses from these questions are made available to Global Campus personnel to help guide instructional design and development and implementation of best practices for WSU.
- A Global Campus liaison meets regularly with Associate Deans from each college delivering online courses and/or programs.
- Global Campus is represented at college and WSU Assessment meetings.
Current/Future emphasis or next steps:
- A chair advisory committee with all of the chairs and directors of fully online programs will discuss and address ongoing challenges and opportunities.
For more information:
NWCCU standards reference: 2.B.4, 2.C.2, 2.C.3, 2.C.4, 4.A.3, 4.A.5