Before teaching an online course, a faculty member must participate in District mandated training. New faculty are required to successfully complete the Introduction to Online Teaching and Learning (IOTL). Faculty developing additional online courses are required to successfully complete the Advanced Online Teaching and Learning (AOTL) for each new course. The IOTL and AOTL are faculty designed and taught trainings based on the latest research in online learning and California Community College State Chancellor's Office initiatives.
IOTL: As online pedagogy has improved, so have retention and student success rates. The Introduction to Online Teaching and Learning (IOTL) models many successful online teaching techniques. During the class, you will have an opportunity to discuss these teaching techniques with peers and experience them from the student perspective. The IOTL is fully online and asynchronous. However, it is not self-paced. The course runs for 5 weeks and takes an estimated time commitment of about 10 hours per week.
AOTL: This training consists of resources and a list of tasks to support you throughout the course development process. We will track your progress through a series of Checkpoints and will provide you with the support you need to design and develop a high-quality online course that is aligned with the best practices of the CVC Course Design Rubric for Quality Distance Education. This is not a self-paced course. There are due dates to comply with in order for us to approve your course in time for the upcoming semester.
At various stages of development, the new course is reviewed by CCSF's Alternative Media Specialist for accessibility/508 compliance and by the OLET for deliverability. Additionally, the class is required to meet the College-wide Curriculum Committee requirements for the delivery of a distance learning class (information about these requirements is included in the training).
Final approval is done in collaboration with the developing faculty member, the Department Chair where the course is housed, the Distance Education Coordinator (faculty), Distance Learning Teaching Specialist (faculty), and the Educational Technology Chair. Most faculty find that the process takes one to two semesters.