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BPO 100 (REVISED)
BPO 100: Best Practices in Online/Hybrid Teaching is an instructor facilitated, 4-week, discussion-based, "Pass / Not Pass" class, conducted entirely online and designed primarily for McDaniel faculty who teach--or soon will be teaching--an online or hybrid class at McDaniel. Some theory, methods, and design issues will be considered, as well as strategies for using AI in the design of instruction, but the primary focus of the class will be on best practices for building and managing an effective online learning community. Also considered will be student-centered pedagogies, active learning methods, and instructional approaches that support diversity, equity, and inclusion. Additionally, the class will convey the values, goals, and policies of teaching online and hybrid at McDaniel. Time commitment: approx. 20 hours over four weeks.


BPO 200: BPO Advanced Design and Practices in Online & Hybrid Teaching is a follow-up "refresher" course that: (a) considers outcomes alignment, authentic assessment, design principles, learning science, and inclusive and equitable methods in more depth, and (b) systematically improves the design and content of a previously taught online or hybrid class. Class participants will begin BPO 200 with an archived version of a class taught previously, then make specific design improvements during each week of the facilitated class. We will incorporate AI in our improvement scheme. Time commitment: approx. 20 hours over four weeks.

June 03- Jun 30, 2024
September 30 - October 27, 2024
February 24- March 23, 2025

BPO 200 (coming in 2024)

Blackboard Basics (HTO 101)

Enroll me in HTO 101, the self-paced Blackboard Basics class.

HTO 101: Blackboard Basics. This self-paced class can be entered and completed at any time. It will cover, via video and text tutorials, the basics of using Blackboard content, collaboration, communication, and grading.

The class has a LearnIt!-ProveIt! structure. Once enrolled in the class, you will be give a Sandbox class so that you can create sample assignments, discussion forums, announcements, use the weighted column to apportion grades, etc. Once the tasks are completed, you will pass HTO 101. Total time commitment: approx. 4 hours.


Once you click submit, you will be sent an email acknowledging your registration. If you are taking a BPO class, you can expect it to appear on Blackboard approximately one month before it is scheduled to begin. If you are taking HTO 101, you should receive via email information on the class within 24 hours.

MORE ABOUT BPO 100 (Revised)

From February 2010 to June 2022, McDaniel College offered the original version of BPO 100: Best Practices in Online Teaching and Learning. Over its twelve year run, more than 700 faculty took the course.

From the beginning, BPO 100 was intentionally designed not to be a technical how-to class. For the limited amount of time we had together, we wanted our focus to be on pedagogy and best practices. For how-to information, we already had regular live workshops, online tutorials, and YouTube. But what we didn't have was a systematic way to convey methods, strategies, and practices that would re-contextualize F2F teaching for online environments.

We wanted BPO 100 (Original) to:

  • Convey best practices in online teaching determined by the research and experience from those institutions that had been doing online for many years.
  • Demonstrate the importance of building effective learning communities by nurturing social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence.
  • Model constructivist methods and convey how student-centered pedagogies and active-learning strategies are especially appropriate for the distributed architecture of online environments.
  • Cover the values, goals, policies and practices of teaching online at McDaniel.

So that's what we did. For over 12 years.

And we still want to do all of the above in BPO 100 (Revised). In that sense, the revision of BPO 100 is a replacement for the original BPO 100. But BPO 100 REVISED is also a sequel to BPO 100 because BPO 100 (Revised) not only uses different texts and resources, its focus is expanded to include more about course design, learning science, and matters of equity, inclusion, and accessibility.

Also, and perhaps most importantly, BPO 100 REVISED is intentionally designed to be appropriate to a covid / post-covid world.

Whereas BPO 100 (original) was almost exclusively about best practices for asynchronous online classes, BPO 100 (Revised) addresses hybrid and bichronous modes as well. Whereas BPO 100 (original) assumed most faculty were either F2F faculty or online faculty, BPO 100 (Revised) takes into account the very real possibility that modes of teaching are not likely to remain static, and even faculty fully dedicated to F2F may have to pivot to hybrid or online (or both) at any time during a semester.

So...

This class is intended for all of you.

MORE ABOUT BPO 200

BPO 200: Advanced Practices in Online & Hybrid Teaching is specifically designed for those who have already taken BPO 100 and want not only to learn more about instructional methods and design, but also to systematically improve a previously taught online or hybrid class.

In BPO 200, we will:

(a) consider a number of BPO 100 topics in more depth (especially Backward Design, Alignment, Authentic Assessment, DEI, Instructional methods, Active Learning, and Accessibility).

(b) look at a range of methods and practices based on recent research in learning science that can improve our online and hybrid instruction.

(c) use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help us improve our design and instruction.

(c) use the framework of Backward Design to apply what we've learned to improve a previously taught online or hybrid course and measure it against Quality Matters standards.

 

McDaniel Core Policies for Online/Hybrid Classes

From the Course Catalog

  1. Online and Hybrid courses are a part of the student’s regular course load and are counted the same as on-campus courses.
  2. Students are at the center of each decision in teaching, design, and course management.
  3. Faculty who teach online/hybrid at McDaniel are required to take a four-week online class, BPO 100: Best Practices in Online and Hybrid Instruction.
  4. All online/hybrid classes are written by McDaniel faculty and designed in consultation with the Instructional Design & Technology Department.
  5. The McDaniel course development process includes:
    • Working collaboratively as a team to develop each online/hybrid class.
    • Designing courses according to the principles of Backward Design, aligning learning objectives with readings, activities, and authentic assessments.
    • Encouraging student-centered instructional design and teaching practices that foster active learning and draw on recent discoveries in cognitive psychology and other disciplines for effective teaching and learning.
    • Privileging the Community of Inquiry framework, ensuring social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence in each online/hybrid class.
  6. Courses are accessible (508 compliant), engaging, interactive, and meet known best practices in instructional design and teaching methods.
  7. We follow all Interregional Guidelines for the Evaluation of Distance Education established by the Council of Regional Accrediting Commissions (C-RAC).
  8. We are a member of Quality Matters and follow their guidelines and principles in designing and assessing our courses.
  9. Integrity, honesty, and respect are paramount in all aspects of McDaniel’s online/hybrid operations.

Instructional Design & Technology
McDaniel College