The Canisius Way
Online Faculty Development Course
Online educational programs have mushroomed in the past two decades and unfortunately many lack rigor, breadth of perspective, or commitment to student development. At Canisius we are creating an alternative online education, where ethics such as commitment, critical thinking, and care for people--Jesuit traits--are reflected in our online courses.
In the coming weeks we will explore the points below in depth, but it's helpful to introduce them here as a master list of characteristics that should describe your course at Canisius. Click the list items on the right to operate the slides.
It's the Law: Regular and Substantive Interaction
The Online Faculty Development Course and (and the COLI Guide to Teaching Online) are built around a set of guidelines for online courses mandated by the United States Department of Education. Courses must include a set of elements that add up to Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI), in order for enrolled students to be eligible for Title IV funding. You can read about these in the link below (or later, in the OFDC Week 1 Activity.) After you read our RSI guide, you'll see each part of it reappear in various activities within the OFDC.
If you've paid attention to discussions of quality in higher education for a long time, the above stipulations shouldn't surprise you. In 1987, well before online learning or even before much of the information technology revolution, Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson developed "Seven Principles of Good Practice" for teaching in higher ed. They are as relevant today as they were then. Take a look: