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COURSE LEAD
RESPONSIBILITIES TRAINING
Feb. 7, 2013
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TWO REASONS FOR THIS TRAINING
1: To help Course Leads understand their
important roles
2: To explain how you will have the time
to fulfill this responsibility
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Course Lead Policy
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Faculty Guide 2013
4.1.3
Course Leads
“In an effort to keep all modes of delivery aligned and continually
improving, department chairs assign course leads for multi-section courses
(typically four or more sections). As needed, department chairs ensure that
a portion of the course lead’s load is designated for significant course
redevelopment or modification, to allow for class observations, for
communicating with other instructors of that course, and to participate in
Course Councils. This load allocation may be from 0 to 3 hours per
semester. It is anticipated that the amount of load would be reassessed
each semester and that it might decrease over time. In situations where
many sections of a course exist (such as Foundations courses), a
department chair may consult with his or her college dean and the associate
academic vice president for instruction about the possibility of appointing an
assistant course lead, as well.”
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Relative Roles and Responsibilities:
A Collaborative Approach to Learning Online
Campus Faculty
Department chairs and faculty are the chief stewards of content. Among other things, they do the following:
 Help decide which courses get created online.
 Collaborate with the online team in creating great courses, helping improve them over time, and keep them
synchronized with what’s being taught on campus.
 They do this through councils that include online instructors and curriculum designers. Council members
listen to each others’ ideas with open minds and debate proposals respectfully and rigorously.
 On matters of content such as deciding on the critical learning outcomes for the course, faculty members
have the final say.
 In other words, no substantive changes to the content of a course should ever be made without approval of
the responsible on-campus faculty. (The person who plays this role is called the Course Lead.)
 Screen online instructor applicants to make sure they have sufficient expertise and appropriate credentials to
teach courses in the discipline.
 No online instructor should ever be hired without a department chair or Foundations team lead approving
their hire.
 Help provide, as needed, content and discipline-specific training to online instructors.
 Provide critical input to the online team if any content-related concerns arise about an instructor’s performance.
 Look for opportunities to reach out to online instructors in their discipline or course and invite them to
participate, where possible, in content-specific discussions and training, without undermining instructors’
reporting relationship to the online team.
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Course Lead Responsibilities
Content
Expert for the
Course(s)
Chair of
Course
Council
Assist other
Instructors of
the Course(s)
Course
Development
Familiar with
all Modes of
Delivery
Report to
Dept. Chair
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Content Expert for the Course(s)
Works
collaboratively
with full-time
faculty who
teach the
course to:
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• Establish and maintain integrated outcomes
and assessments for all delivery modes
(Learning activities may differ according to
the environment, i.e. Face to Face [F2F],
Online, Blended [BL], or Competency-based
course [CBC], but must lead to the same
outcomes and similar assessments)
• Develop new Online, BL, or CBCs, as
needed
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Chair of Course Council
Course Council
composed of:
Course Council
communicates
once/semester
(or as needed)
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• Course Lead
• Online Course Representative
(Other individuals may be invited to attend as
needed)
• Discuss course modification
• Implement changes in all modes of delivery
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Assist Other Instructors of the Course(s)
Observes F2F
classes
once/semester
Meet w/F2F
Instructors and OCR
In consultation with
OCR
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• Includes adjunct and Evening School faculty
• Communicate vision, give encouragement, and
answer questions
• Could be in conjunction with class observation
• Occasionally view online instruction to
understand content-related elements in this
environment, and offer suggestions to the
Online Course Representative about an
instructor’s performance in content-related
concerns.
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Online Course Representative Responsibilities
Appointed by Online Instruction and granted a 10 hr.
contract each semester
Responsibilities:
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• Sits on the Course Council as the
online representative for the online
course they teach
• Evaluate aspects of the online course
against established criteria
• Gather curriculum improvement
suggestions from peer online
instructors.
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Course Development
Take lead in
representing oncampus faculty
in development
of new and/or
existing courses
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• Under Department Chair direction
• Ensure all modes of delivery have
same learning outcomes,
assessments, and learning
activities-adapted to specific
modes of delivery
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Familiar With All Modes of Delivery
May opt to teach • Get a feel for that mode of delivery
an online and/or • Once/year
BL course
• As part of load
If used, oversee CBC modes
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Report to Department Chair
Assigned by the
Dept. Chair
Load
Assignment
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• Report once/semester on status of
course(s) under his/her
supervision
• Varies, but will typically be 1 hr./
semester (approx. 45 hrs.)
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Resources
Process Instructions
Templates and Forms
Design and Development Assistance
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