Ten Cal Poly Pomona faculty members participated this summer in a program designed to support those who teach online and hybrid courses.
The Developing Online Learning-Centered Environments (DOLCE) 3.0 program has been around for several years, but this summer the focus was on applying the Quality Matters rubric for online or hybrid course design. Quality Matters is a nationally recognized rubric used to develop robust hybrid, online and technology-enhanced courses, according to Amanda Marsh, faculty lead for DOLCE 3.0 and a lecturer in the plant sciences department.
Marsh says she has used the Quality Matters rubric to improve the courses she teaches.
The program this year is focused on faculty of high-demand or core courses transitioning from traditional face-to-face to hybrid or online formatting, with each participant tasked with re-tooling their course to fit an online learning environment and then reviewing another professor’s course at the end of the program. Most of the work is done in the summer months, but DOLCE 3.0 is a year-long program that concludes for the year in June 2017.
“Our goal for DOLCE 3.0 was to target courses that are transitioning from face-to-face to online or courses that are high-volume and hard for students to get,” Marsh says.
The implementation of the rubric has helped because it is a transition point for faculty as they university gears up for semester conversion, she adds.
The program’s mission aligns with goals the Academic Affairs division set in summer 2014 to increase the number of online courses offered as a way to lead to online degrees, she says. Other goals included bolstering student achievement through quality course design and accessible content and encouraging faculty to create more online and hybrid courses.
College campuses have seen a growth in demand for online and hybrid classes, which offer convenience and accessibility for faculty and students, according to Marsh.
“They are a lot more flexible for unconventional students who are working full time or who have one more class to take before they graduate,” she says.
Faculty Participants in DOLCE 3.0
- Nancy Wolf, College of Education & Integrative Studies
- Jae Min Jung, College of Business Administration
- Anthony Kim, College of Business Administration
- Kristen Schiele, College of Business Administration
- Denisa Chatman-Riley, College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences
- Terry Steagall, College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences
- Saeidah Fallah-Fini, College of Engineering
- Greg Placencia, College of Engineering
- Maryam Shafahi, College of Engineering
Program support staff
- DOLCE 3.0 faculty lead: Amanda Marsh, College of Agriculture
- Program supervisor: Victoria Bhavsar, Faculty Center for Development
- ELearning Instructional Designers:
- April Dawn, Lead
- Eric Davis
- Bo Choi
- Pauline Salim