Online classes offer the flexibility many students need in order to take college courses. However, teaching in the online environment requires new approaches and techniques. That’s why Boise State offers comprehensive resources and training to enable quality online education.
The eCampus Center offers expert consultation and support in the design, development, and delivery of online courses and programs. The eCampus Center offers several professional development opportunities through the eCampus Quality Instruction Program (eQIP)–a comprehensive professional development, course improvement, and support program for faculty who teach online and the academic departments that offer online courses. Participation is open to all Boise State teachers — adjuncts, lecturers, or tenure-track faculty — who are approved by their academic departments and colleges. With the exception of self-support and grant-funded programs, participation is generally supported financially by eCampus Center funding to the participant or academic department. Stipends are paid either directly to participants or to their academic departments to partially offset the cost of offering lecturers or tenure-track faculty reduced workloads. All financial support is paid after participants successfully complete the eQIP program component in which they are enrolled.
Components of eQIP
The eCampus Teaching Online Seminar (eTOS) is a 6-week professional development course that provides an overview of the key knowledge and skills faculty need to successfully teach an online course. The course is for faculty who currently teach or are preparing to teach a previously developed online course. It is taught by Boise state faculty with years of experience in teaching online. This seminar is focused on “best practices” for effectively facilitating/teaching an online course that has already been developed. This course does not cover how to design and develop an online course, nor does it focus on basic computer skills or how to use a course management system (such as Blackboard).
The eCampus Course Design and Development Seminar (eCD2S) is a 12-week professional development course in which faculty design and develop an online course that is of strategic importance to their department/college. The eCampus Center provides instruction and expert consultation on the teaching strategies and technologies that can be used by faculty to build a high-quality online course.
The eCampus Course Design Phase (eCD) is an 8-week development phase in which faculty collaborate with instructional design consultants to develop a course. This course development phase is for faculty that have already completed the 12-week seminar and know how to follow the course design process the eCampus Center uses to design and develop online courses.
A Quality Matters Peer Review is conducted on all courses that are developed through the eCampus Quality Instruction Program components. For each peer review, three Boise State faculty conduct an in-depth course review based on the online course standards defined by the Quality Matters Program, a nationally recognized program in quality assurance for online education (www.qualitymatters.org/). Boise State faculty that would like to participate as peer reviewers may receive training through the eCampus Center in how to evaluate online courses using the Quality Matters standards.
eQIP Purpose and Guiding Principles
Partnership. The eCampus Quality Instruction Program is a collaborative partnership between the eCampus Center (in the Division of Extended Studies) and the academic departments and colleges.
Support. The eCampus Quality Instruction Program is intended to be a full-featured professional development and support system for faculty who teach online and their academic departments. We want to ensure that all faculty have the tools and assistance to be successful in their online teaching experiences.
Quality. The principles of partnership and support lead to improved student learning by providing academic departments the specific tools and resources they need to design and develop high-quality online courses.
Faculty Perspectives
Visit the Faculty Perspectives web page to read comments about the various components of the eCampus Quality Instruction Program and watch a short video of a Boise State faculty member talking about her initial concerns about online teaching and her experience with the eCampus Quality Instruction Program.
For More Information
If you would like to learn more about how to participate in the eCampus Quality Instruction Program, contact Daren Olson at 208.426.4223 or darenolson@boisestate.edu.