Here we are, nearly at the end of OTL 503.

As a class, our primary focus this week is to catch our breath and wrap-up the semester.

We have only one more course to go in the series--590, in which you complete the design and creation of your online course and produce a portfolio that discusses, demonstrates and reflects upon the theoretical and practical choices you made. It is the most "open" class in the series, and, we hope, the most rewarding, since it pulls in everything you have learned and produces a deliverable you and your institution can be proud of.

Further, we hope that you are able to enter OTL 590 confident that you can complete the design of a quality online class and produce a portfolio that reflects on those choices. After all, you now have experience--with the OTL series, your online course, and your classmates' courses.

Quality Matters

Over the years, we hae watched (and used) the terrific work that MarylandOnline has been doing with their Quality Matters project. They began under the auspices of a FIPSI grant from the US Dept. of Ed and freely shared their work. That changed in 2007, however. Now, they share their work in rubrics with members only.

Quality Matters is the last document they made freely available over the Web.

We'll use that here.

The primary question now, at the end of the penultimate class in the series, is:

Has the OTL series given you the tools to produce an online class that meets the Quality Matters standards?

If not, where is the series lacking? What have we missed?

That is Question One in the Discussion Forum this week.

Question Two is:

Using (a) MarylandOnline's Quality Matters rubric and (b) the experience of having "piloted" your course for a week, assess your class.

What are its strengths? Its weaknesses? How does it best hold up to the Quality Matters.

See you in the Discussion Board!