Online Course Design Standards

Online Course Design StandardsThe  Online Education Initiative (OEI) Course Design Rubric (Rubric) contains the online course design standards developed and adopted by this initiative. The Rubric is intended to establish standards relating to course design, interaction and collaboration, assessment, learner support, and accessibility in order to ensure the provision of a high quality learning environment that promotes student success and conforms to existing regulations.

In the development of these standards, the OEI team was fortunate to have access to significant work already undertaken in this area by @ONE, the CCC Distance Education Coordinator’s group, the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC), and the CCC Chancellor’s office (CCCCO) along with a variety of other local college and nationally established standards.

Use of the Rubric has already begun at the OEI pilot colleges and forms the basis for the course reviews for courses offered within the pilot. Numerous colleges have already reported local adoption of the OEI Course Design Rubric. In addition, in November of 2015, the Academic Senate for the California Community Colleges adopted a resolution urging local senates to establish course design standards for their colleges (Resolution 9.01 F15).  

The OEI, in partnership with @ONE, is offering workshops that assist faculty and staff from across the colleges in aligning online courses to the course design standards. Learn how to participate by visiting the @ONE website

The following rubric and standards are available for use by all under Creative Commons licensing. We welcome your feedback.