Instructional Design
Quality Benchmarks for Course Development
Educational Outreach and the instructional design groups across campus have developed guidelines and best practices for online delivery. These basic guidelines incorporate benchmarks which have been developed and approved by the Institute for Higher Education for developing internet based course delivery.
A draft of the University of Houston guidelines are available upon request from any instructional designer across campus or by calling Tammy Hoskings at (713)743-1773.
The benchmarks for course delivery include:
Appropriate technology should be applied to provide support for course objectives. Learning objectives, and not the technology itself, should influence the course development.
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Communication and feedback opportunities must be available for students. Courses should be designed to engage students with the course material. It is important to provide meaningful assignments and evaluations as a part of the course requirements. The University of Houston provides tools and support to help instructors involve students in an electronic course. Two particularly useful resources are Horizon Wimba and Digital Storytelling.
Horizon Wimba provides a real-time venue for classes to meet online and develop interactive communication. Digital Storytelling is a process used to provide a digital representation of course material. This type of project provides a way to expose students to creative, interactive electronically delivered material.
Effort should be made to evaluate the course effectiveness periodically thoughout the semester, allowing adjustment, if necessary, of the course material based on student feedback.
If you have any questions about E.T.U.O.'s quality benchmarks for course delivery, please contact Tammy Hoskings at (713)743-1773 or at thoskings@uh.edu.