Department of Industry and Technology,
Ball State University

Suggestions for Formal Review of an Implemented Online Course
By Jim Flowers, Director of Online Education
www.bsu.edu/iandt/official/coursereviewsug.htm

Note: These suggestions are made to aid the online course developer in presenting their implemented course for review. The peer review instrument and procedure can be seen at:
www.bsu.edu/web/iandt/official/courseevaluation.pdf and at:
www.bsu.edu/web/iandt/official/courseevaluation.doc .

1. Room 133B is not a good choice. I'd recommend AT 214 or one of our other electronic classrooms with dedicated projectors and low noise levels.

2. If possible, try to get a formal reviewer from outside our department. Wayne Mock, Greg Siering and Roch King were able to provide comments on ITEDU 568 and ITEDU 698 that none of us could have provided due to their experience elsewhere and their objectivity. I can help you find potential reviewers, which might come from Nursing, Physical Education, Adult Education, or other areas, just as long as the reviewer has taught an online class. Also, the reviewers should each realize that there is a form for them to use, and that they are expected to provide critical and substantive feedback. If you walk away from a review session without thinking, "that was brutal," then they've probably gone too lightly on you.

3. Schedule the review session for the first or second week of the semester in which you are being paid for course revision. The review session should provide data needed for your revision.

4. Be sure the formal reviewers and the Director of Online Education have instructor level access to your Blackboard site a week before the review session. (For the Director's review, you may wish just to log in to a computer using your password for a one-time session rather than having Mark Wolfe add his name as an instructor.)

5. In your presentation, show us any welcome page you've created to share preliminary information with potential students.

6. Share with us any print materials sent to students at the beginning of the semester, and explain your initial contacts with students.

7. Demonstrate how a student enters and navigates your course site (Blackboard).

8. If there is a weekly procedure, explain it to us. For example, do they know when assignments will be posted, or when they are expected to log on?

9. If there is a model for learning in your online class, show it to us. For example, students might be asked to do preliminary readings, then share their ideas on a forum, then react to others' ideas, and finally synthesize what they've learned into a written product. Or, students might be treated as individual learners, where group interaction is not regularly expected.

10. Show us a sample lesson, along with content and student activities. However, the primary purpose of this review is not to look at course content, but at how the course is delivered on the Internet, so show us how you take advantage of Internet-mediated education.

11. Show us an example of how student performance is evaluated.

12. Show us how student-student and teacher-student communications occur, and share a few examples of the methods used.

13. Tell us how you get feedback from students and others that can help you improve this course. What has that feedback indicated?

14. Share with us your opinions as to what works well, and what needs improvement. What are your current plans for course revision?

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It is hoped that there will be a friendly and constructive, yet critical discussion throughout the review session, with questions and answers on all parts and alternatives presented to address problems.

After you receive all reviewers' comments, prepare a plan of action to revise the course and share that with the Director.

Again, this proposed structure is an attempt to provide greater organization for a presenter and it is up to the presenter to decide what elements of this structure to use.