Lake Superior College – Online Course Peer Review

Ah, yes…academic honesty. No doubt, if you teach (online or in a campus classroom), you’ve had to deal with issues of academic dishonesty at some point or another. I’ve had three cases of student plagiarism/copied work to handle this semester in my online classes. I always feel sick to my stomach when I discover it! Fortunately, most students take responsibility for their actions—-a few, of course, fight it tooth and nail. Having academic honesty issues and consequences addressed clearly in the online classroom can certainly help to prevent potential problems.

LSC peer review standard I.3 states: Expectations regarding academic honesty, including plagiarism concerns, are clearly stated in the instructor’s course syllabus.

At a minimum, in order to meet this standard, the following statement must appear on an LSC course syllabus: Charges of academic misconduct will be brought to the attention of the student and disciplinary actions will be taken. See the Lake Superior College Student Code of Conduct for further details http://www.lsc.edu/Policy/policy3_6_1.cfm

It’s never a bad idea to have information addressing this issue in multiple areas of the class. On every class assignment I remind students that they are to use their own words, use original examples, etc. Some students really struggle with not lifting sentences or phrases directly from the textbook or other class resources. Extra reminders can’t hurt! In addition to the Code of Conduct mentioned above, this is what I have on my syllabi: All responses to assignment questions must be original. Turning in an assignment written (wholly or partially) by someone else is considered plagiarism. Taking someone else’s words without documenting the author is considered plagiarism. Copied work will not be tolerated and will earn zero points and a possible F for the class. Many LSC online instructors have course orientation quizzes that incorporate academic honesty policies in them. If you do something other than what is listed above, I’d love to hear about it!

Our Virtual Campus distributed an excellent brochure this fall which included quite detailed information about academic honesty policies on our campus: http://www.lsc.edu/Fall%202006%20Brochure1.pdf

LSC peer review rubric standard I.2 reads: Course layout, as designed by the instructor, is easy to navigate and understand. This 3-point item (an important one as all 3-point standards must be met in order for a course to meet overall expectations) assumes that the following are easy to locate, navigate and understand:

• a course syllabus
• a calendar with all course activities/deadlines included
• course activities
• grading system
• quizzing procedures (online, proctored, etc.)
• procedure for submission of assignments
• discussion instructions

As the designer of a course, it’s easy to think your online course is highly navigable. Having others enter your course for the first time to provide feedback to you about its navigability can be extremely valuable! Oftentimes, just a couple of small changes can make a confusing course a straightforward one.

During the peer review process, time and again one of the most discussed topics is accessibility.  In fact, at the May 2006 workshop, many participants requested more information about what LSC is doing as far as recognizing the importance of ADA requirements in online learning.  Following is the webaddress for access e-learning which is used by LSC faculty and staff (completing a certain number of modules is a requirement).  http://www.accesselearning.net/  According to the website: access e-learning is “A free, online ten-module tutorial that offers information, instructional techniques, and practice labs on how to make the most common needs in distance education accessible for individuals with disabilities, and enhance the usability of online materials for all students.”

Another good source of information, of course, are the MnSCU Web Accessibility Guidelines found here:  http://webmasters.mnscu.edu/access/guidelines/

Barry Dahl, LSC Vice President of Technology and the Virtual Campus, writes a great deal more about accessibility issues in the October 6th entry of his blog:  http://desire2blog.blogspot.com/

Peer review rubric standard VIII.1 states:  There is evidence of effort to recognize the importance of ADA requirements (such as equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content, webpage links that are self-describing and meaningful, and information conveyed on webpages in color is also available without color).  

Generally, as peer reviewers, we find that most online instructors do make an effort to provide accessible courses.  Recommendations we seem to make most frequently include avoiding colorful backgrounds (stick to white), use colorful text sparingly–and when using it, use bold, as well, use alt tags for all graphics, and any audio used should also be made available in written form.  In addition, it is required that faculty include the following statement on their syllabi regarding disability services available to students: 

Individuals who have a documented disability which might affect their ability to perform in this class are encouraged to inform the instructor and the Disabilties Coordinator, E2114 (218)733-7650 (voice) or (218)722-6893 (TTY), at the start of the semester.  All discussions will remain confidential.

The May 24-25, 2006 Online Course Peer Review workshop in Duluth went over so well and was attended by employees from so many different MnSCU schools, that we decided to continue the dialogue…right here! Every Monday, I (Susan Brashaw) will post something new about the online course peer review process at LSC. You are encouraged to post your thoughts and ideas in an effort to make this an inter-institutional activity. Have you implemented any of the ideas learned at the workshop?  Please let us know by commenting below!

For those of you who did not attend the workshop, let me catch you up a bit. In a nutshell, about 3 years ago LSC adapted online course peer review documents from MarylandOnline’s Quality Matters program to fit the needs of our college. Last year we conducted over 20 peer reviews on courses volunteered by LSC faculty. This year our goal is to complete at least 15 reviews, although we’re running a bit low on faculty volunteers this time around. Just a new challenge/stage of the process!

Check out the documents we use during the peer review process by clicking on the links on the above navigation bar.

Please be sure to check in by posting a comment before you sign-off (did I mention that already?).  When you comment, you’ll see a button labeled “abschicken”. This is German for “post”—so make sure to click on it after you type in your comment. It’s a default language setting I can’t seem to change—and a rather humorous one at that, I think!

Photo used with permission from www.northernimages.com