As the university expands online learning opportunities, it remains committed to upholding academic excellence in online teaching and learning. Digital Learning (DL) shares in this commitment by providing resources tailored to elevate the quality of online teaching and course design.
Quality Tools Hosted by Digital Learning
Digital Learning hosts a variety of tools designed to support instructors at every stage of their online teaching journey.
Asynchronous Teaching
Peer Observation &
Feedback Tool
The observation tool provides a recommended structure for performing peer teaching observations for asynchronous courses. The tool focuses on learner engagement and the extent to which those elements are represented in the online asynchronous classroom.
Instructor Information Form
Recommended for: Formal or informal review and feedback, and focused observation of specific modules or areas of the Canvas site.
Engaged Online Course
Rubric (EOCR)
The EOCR offers a comprehensive set of standards grounded in research-based best practices for promoting quality in online education. Centered primarily on course design, the annotated rubric includes expanded annotations and examples, providing details on how each standard is measured.
Engaged Online Course Rubric
Recommended for: Experienced online instructors preparing for a full EOC review.
Engaged Online Course
Checklist (EOCC)
The EOCC presents the quality standards as checklist items for easy navigation and organizes them in a way that supports the review of targeted standards and specific course design elements.
Recommended for: Self-review or peer review specific elements of the course design.
Guide to Regular & Substantive Interaction (RSI)
The U.S. Department of Education mandates that students can only use Title IV funds (federal financial aid) for online courses that include regular and substantive interaction (RSI) between students and faculty.
Regular and Substantive Interaction
Recommended for: Supporting federally mandated regulations, and promoting learner instructor engagement and interaction.
Engaged Online Course Review
The Engaged Online Course (EOC) review is designed to recognize and promote quality in online course design and development. It enables instructors to receive constructive peer feedback while acquiring the necessary support to enhance various aspects of their online courses.
Please visit the EOC Review page to learn more.
Quality Matters Self Review
The university is a member of Quality Matters (QM), the long-standing international organization for promoting quality in online teaching and learning. As members, UTK instructional faculty and staff have access to certain resources, including free professional development webinars, and the Quality Matters Self-Review Tool. Using this tool, instructors can conduct a more formal self assessment of an online course. The tool is pre-loaded with the UTK Engaged Course Rubric and includes the full annotations and examples for each of the general standards. Instructors may also conduct self reviews using the Quality Matters Rubric.
