Empowering Students, Elevating Quality: How We Engage Students in Course Quality Reviews
#OnlineEducation #CourseQuality #StudentLed #EdTech #HybridLearning #StudentEngagement #HigherEducation #QualityAssurance #PimaCommunityCollege #ContinuousImprovement
Credit where it is due, I was inspired by M. Kody Stimpson from ASU who gave me the idea for a student-led approach to enhancing the quality of online and hybrid courses.
At Pima Community College, our Course Readiness Review Process engages students who are both currently enrolled in online classes and eligible for work study-student employment. These students are hired as Quality Sepciasts and tasked with performing course readiness checks for online, virtual (synchronous online), and hybrid courses in our primary learning management system (LMS), Brightspace D2L. The students conduct their work in the capacity of a special viewing-only role, an impartial perspective that ensures students do not evaluate courses they are currently enrolled in or ones that fall within their major pathway.
The process is rigorous, and comprehensive, and covers a wide range of course elements. Students verify if the course content is present, ensure there's a timely welcome message in the course announcements, check the presence and relevance of Instructor Widgets, NetTutor, D2L Support, Access Google Apps, and validate the accuracy and timeliness of the syllabus and the schedule of work. Additionally, due dates for quizzes, assignments, and discussions are verified for relevance.
A unique aspect of the process is the focus on syllabus accessibility. Students ensure the syllabus is available in various formats (Word Document, PDF, HTML, or Google Document) to cater to diverse student needs. After the course readiness summary is reviewed and updated, syllabi are added to a shared Google Drive for department heads to review.
The results of this extensive review process are carefully documented and shared with department heads, who further double-check the results before forwarding them to the faculty. This creates a loop of continuous feedback and improvement, promoting transparency, and enabling constructive action based on the feedback.
This student-led approach provides multiple benefits. It fosters faculty buy-in for quality improvement (For example, it shifts the feedback from staff to students so when we discuss with faculty we can say "It’s not that I think this but student reviewers were unable to locate X, Y, or Z"), creating a direct connection between student feedback and faculty development. Moreover, it shifts a significant portion of the course readiness workload from department heads to student workers, allowing faculty leadership to focus on higher-stakes conversations regarding instructional practice and not course design. Additionally, it provides gainful employment with valuable work experience for our student workers.
Our Course Readiness Review Process has yielded impressive results. From Spring '22 to Fall '22, we observed a 24% increase in courses where students could easily locate synchronous meeting links, a 19% rise in visible instructor presence through enhanced Instructor Widgets, and a 17% improvement in the clarity and accessibility of course materials. These positive shifts underscore the crucial role of clear and accessible course materials, visible instructor presence, and readily available synchronous interaction links in fostering student success in online learning environments.
The Course Readiness Review Process at Pima Community College demonstrates that significant enhancements in online education quality can be achieved in a student-centric and budget-neutral manner. We're proud of the strides we've made and the positive outcomes we've seen. We are not only contributing to a more engaging and effective online learning environment but also actively involving students in shaping their own educational experiences.
How might student perspectives enhance the quality and relevance of online education in your own contexts? How can you further integrate student insights into your course design and development processes? The future of education is in the hands of those we serve, and we believe that by listening to them, we can create a learning environment that truly meets their needs.