Faculty are expected to self-review spring 2021 remote courses following OSCQR rubric
The following message was sent by email to faculty and staff on Dec. 4, 2020.
Dear Faculty Colleagues:
In my message to the faculty Wednesday, I shared with you that in response to SUNY’s standards regarding remote Instruction in spring 2021, we are asking the following of faculty with regard to the Open SUNY Course Quality Review (OSCQR) rubric.
A widely respected instrument, OSCQR is employed well beyond the confines of SUNY. The OSCQR self-review is designed to help faculty update and improve their courses if needed to meet best practices and to identify any areas where they may need to reach out for additional support, which is available in several forms as alluded to in my message.
As part of the plan to address the SUNY standards for remote instruction:
- All faculty are expected to conduct a self-review of their spring 2021 remote courses using the OSCQR rubric, relying on the streamlined New Paltz version of OSCQR which can be found at this link and is described in more detail below.
- Faculty teaching a course with reduced campus presence (e.g., hybrid, where they meet in person some of the time and online for the rest) also need to complete the OSCQR self-evaluation of the course
- Any faculty who are teaching fully asynchronous courses and, moreover, have not been previously certified to teach online, are required to turn in their OSCQR review to their Chair, Associate Dean, or Dean (as determined by their school/college) so that they can get additional support for any assistance needed. If course remediation is needed, the self-evaluation may be additionally submitted to the instructional design team so they can tailor their support. Your chairs will be provided a spreadsheet of previously certified faculty to assist in the event there are any questions.
To assist you in this work, you can access a simplified, fillable Word version of the OSCQR rubric as well as an annotated guide to the rubric from a new page we have created in the Instructional Technology Knowledge Base.
This webpage also provides guidance on how to access the Office of Instructional Technology Default Course Shell in Blackboard. Adopting the default shell is an easy way to ensure that the remote elements of a course meet most of the OSCQR best practices.
As stated in my December report to the faculty, please expect additional communications and, in the meantime, please do not hesitate to reach out with questions so that we can address them.
Best regards,
Barbara
Barbara Lyman
Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs