Although the previous two course evaluation rubrics were for course design, experience has shown us that a well-designed course may be well or poorly facilitated. While there are several excellent rubrics that look at course facilitation, such as the QOLT, UW-La Crosse Online Course Evaluation Guidelines (click on link in new window), and others, we will look at an open licensed course facilitation review developed by Penn State that is designed for peer reviews. This rubric is based on the “Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education,” "a summary of 50 years of higher education research that addresses good teaching and learning practices" ("Faculty Peer Review," 2016). This framework evaluates teaching and learning effectiveness following Chickering and Gamson's seminal article ("Faculty Peer Review," 2016).

The Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education are (Chickering & Gamson, 1987):

1. Encourage contact between students and faculty

2. Develop reciprocity and cooperation among students

3. Encourage active learning

4. Give prompt feedback

5. Emphasize time on task

6. Communicate high expectations

7. Respect diverse talents and ways of learning

The Peer Review process consists of an Instructor Input form and a Peer Review Guide for Online Teaching at Penn State. The rubric or review guide provides a description of each principle, examples of evidence, places to look in the course for this evidence, and it provides resources for instructors so that they can further develop their skills if they find a particular area challenging. Because these are licensed through the Creative Commons, users can adapt the review guide as needed to fit their institution. When UWG Online adopted this framework, we replaced Penn State resources with our own and edited the examples of evidence terminology to reflect our learning management system.

The advantages of this framework are that it is based on decades of research and educates the reviewer and the instructor on best practices as part of the guide.