APLU Helps Develop Playbook with Every Learner Everywhere on Best Practices For Moving Teaching Online

The COVID-19 pandemic has compelled higher education faculty nationwide to move their instruction online with limited preparation or guidance. A newly released playbook helps faculty navigate this pedagogical shift while maintaining focus on student success.

Delivering High-Quality Instruction Online in Response to COVID-19 is a faculty-focused playbook intended to improve course design, teaching, and learning in online environments. With special attention to the needs of instructors teaching online for the first time, the guide offers strategies for getting started and improving over time.

“Faculty admirably shifted their classes online this spring in far from ideal circumstances, said Karen Vignare, Executive Director of APLU’s Personalized Learning Consortium, and who helped create the resource. “As they prepare for the fall with the possibility that some or all of their instruction will be online, faculty can take more time to carefully think through the best ways to design and deliver their courses so that students receive the maximum benefit. This free resource provides faculty with an easy to follow playbook for developing high quality courses in the age of COVID-19.”

“While we hope that the public health situation improves and students are back on campus in September, most institutions are preparing for the need to offer a significant percentage of instruction in hybrid and online formats for the fall semester and maybe longer,” said Jessica Rowland Williams, PhD, Director of Every Learner Everywhere. “Our faculty playbook provides just-in-time guidance from digital learning experts which builds on their decades of experience delivering high-quality online education.”

APLU, the Online Learning Consortium,and Every Learner Everywhere developed the playbook, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the playbook provides a path for continuous improvement of instruction along a quality-oriented continuum.

● Design guides immediate and basic needs for moving a course online. It is useful for translation of face-to-face or blended courses for fully-online delivery.

● Enhance provides options to strengthen the student learning experience. It is useful for improving face-to-face course elements that do not translate easily to online modalities.

● Optimize offers ideas and resources for online teaching that aligns with high-quality, evidence-based instructional practices. It is useful for continuous improvement of the online learning experience and student outcomes.

In addition, Delivering High-Quality Instruction Online in Response to COVID-19 addresses online teaching and learning in both emergency and non-emergency contexts with special attention to course design, course construction, course management, course evaluation, and strategies for continuous improvement.

The Every Learner Everywhere network includes Achieving the Dream, the Association of Chief Academic Officers, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, the Digital Learning Research Network, Digital Promise Global, EDUCAUSE, EdSurge, Intentional Futures, the Online Learning Consortium, SxSW EDU, Tyton Partners, and WCET (the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies).

To download the Faculty Playbook, visit everylearnereverywhere.org/resources.