Black Hawk College
Best Practices for Exemplary Online Instruction

This document is based upon the "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education" by Chickering, A. and Gamson, Z. In addition, portions of this document have been adapted from the Quality Online Course Initiative (QOCI) instrument, developed by members and staff at the Illinois Online Network, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL. See more information about Chickering and Gamson’s research.

Questions about the Black Hawk College "Best Practices for Exemplary Online Instruction" guide may be directed to the Alternative Delivery Committee of the Faculty Senate or the Teaching/Learning Center at Black Hawk College. tlc@bhc.edu

Purpose of this Guide

The items in "Best Practices for Exemplary Online Instruction" emphasize potential effective practices associated with teaching online, not a minimum set of standards or competencies and are not to be used for faculty tenure and promotion review, or retention by the administration. They represent those teaching practices that appear in the best practices literature, including a variety of similar guides or standards developed by other colleges or resource centers devoted to online instruction. The guide can be used as:

1. a source of specific suggestions for new online faculty as they design their courses
2. a collaborative peer review tool that encourages dialogue among online faculty
3. a framework for new online faculty training and support, as provided by the Teaching/Learning Center or other support staff

The best practices are organized using Chickering and Gamson’s research on the seven principles of good practice in undergraduate education. They provide you with specific ideas for what each principle might look like in an online course. You can review the executive summary of the full document which is available at http://facweb.bhc.edu/tlc/learn/onlinelearning/exemplary.html The detailed strategy descriptions appear in each individual Principle document as well as the full document.

Chickering and Gamson Background Information

Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson, in collaboration with colleagues, the AAHE, and the Education Commission of the States (funded by the Johnson Foundation) completed a meta-analysis of 50 years of research on higher education teaching and learning. Their goal was to make this research more accessible to faculty members and institutions, so that the many large studies that had been completed during that time would have a larger impact on teaching and learning in higher education. Their famous article summarizing the findings appeared in 1987, followed by a book in 1991.
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/7princip.htm)

Inventories based on their study have been developed for faculty, institutional, and student research (1989-90). A Center for the Seven Principles was established at Winona State University. Numerous college support centers, state agencies and educational resource centers, such as the TLT Group within Educause, have used the seven principles as a basis for publishing faculty resource materials and conducting research surrounding their application to undergraduate teaching in other-than-face-to-face settings, as well ( http://www.tltgroup.org/programs/seven.html).

The Winter, 1999 issue of the New Directions in Teaching and Learning series includes a chapter written by Chickering and Gamson, chronicling some of these applications and adaptations to date. The seven principles are used in this document as an organizing structure for the many items drawn from the best practices literature on online education.

Seven Principles or Eight?

Users of this guide may notice that there is a host of examples and suggestions under the headings of eight principles rather than seven. A word of explanation: Chickering and Gamson’s principles reference general teaching principles, regardless of the delivery method used. Most online teaching resources speak separately about course site design and online teaching practices. Hence, there is an "8th principle" to speak to the many helpful best practice examples that have everything to do with the way an online course is organized and presented through the course site design, and little to do with the way the course is taught. It is hoped that the users of this guide find this distinction useful in interpreting the best practices for their own applications.