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FIU Online collaborates with many of the university’s colleges to offer fully online courses and programs. At FIU Online, we ensure that faculty members’ online teaching experience is a positive one by providing support services that assist in the development of their course(s). The purpose of this document is to clearly define the roles and responsibilities between the Instructional Designer and the Faculty Member throughout the design and development process.
Role of the Instructional Designer: Course Development
Assist faculty members’ transition from traditional to technology enables courses.
Request a preliminary meeting to begin the design and development process.
Suggest appropriate learning strategies and technology tools to enhance the student’s learning experience.
Train professors on the basic tools that they need to conduct their course(s) such as; Course Email, Discussion Board, and the Grade Center. Refer those who need or want additional training to our training and development page.
Collaborate with ID Liaison throughout the design and development process for program updates and support.
Assist professors in every step of course design. This includes:
Create a plan of action in collaboration with the faculty
Suggest appropriate learning strategies and technology tools to enhance the student’s learning experience.
Use Program Course Development Requirements and Best Practice document as a guide to design courses.
Utilize tools to prevent academic misconduct
Build academic integrity mechanisms into the course.
Format and upload syllabi, content, quizzes, and assignments.
Encourage professors to:
Create a welcome video/message
Develop clear goals and objectives
Use grading rubrics
Use communication tools
Develop varied assessment opportunities
Add audio and video components
Assist professors in accommodating all Disability Resource Center (DRC) student(s) registered in their course(s).
Acknowledge faculty requests within 1 business days. When faced with a request that requires more time, communicate with the faculty to negotiate an acceptable deadline or to modify.
Provide support to faculty for course related questions and issues.
Build academic integrity mechanisms into the course.
Respond only to requests received from faculty members and authorized teaching assistants/coaches. Please refer all students who contact you directly to our FIU Online Support Services.
Upload finalized Creator Pro Syllabi into Faculty Resources Site
Provide CMBA Program Manager with course textbook information 4 weeks prior to semester start date.
Thoroughly conduct self and cross audits of assigned courses prior to semester start date.
Role of the Faculty: Course Development
Meet with your Instructional Designer to discuss your goals and objectives for your fully online course(s). This includes goals related to specific program objectives and goals.
Establish a response time for all communication with your assigned Instructional Designer.
To ensure the accuracy and integrity of all requests, the Instructional Designer will only respond to requests received from faculty members and authorized teaching assistants/coaches. Any student communication must be confirmed with the instructing faculty member. Please refer student inquiries to Student Support Services. Please refrain from sending students directly to your Instructional Designer.
Attend FIU Online’s professor training suggested by your Instructional Designer or Program.
Provide your instructional designer your syllabus and course calendar with updated due dates, course content, test banks and other materials on time by the dates provided to you by your Instructional Designer at the beginning of the term. IMPORTANT: Understand that missing deadlines may result in course materials not being available to students when needed.
Use the CMBA Program Course Development Requirements and Best Practice document as a guide to develop your course materials.
Quiz/exam questions should be submitted at least 5 business days before the exam start date. If the test contains images, videos, or audio, materials should be sent 2 weeks prior to the opening date.
In order to ensure course quality, faculty members are responsible for reviewing all course content. Proofread the content for grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors. Confirm that all dates in the course calendar and assignments/assessments due dates are correct. Check for inaccurate, conflicting, or redundant information caused by copying and pasting over old syllabi.
Video, audio and other course media materials should be submitted at least 2 weeks prior to the date of expected use.
Your Instructional Designer will provide you with the MS Word version of the FIU Online syllabus template. Use this template to make the necessary semester updates.(Course calendar dates, textbook information, etc.)
Provide all course materials in electronic format. If the materials are not in electronic format then arrangements must be made for conversion allowing sufficient time for the Instructional Designer to post the material.
If a publisher’s digital content is used, enhance your course with additional instructional resources.
As a best practice, always inform your instructional designer when adding content to your course(s). If all parties are aware of course updates, this will help to ensure the success of the course.
Faculty members are encouraged to contact their department and/or FIU Online immediately should an emergency arise and they will not be available to their students for an extended period. If the emergency does not permit, please assign someone to contact your department and/or FIU Online.
Instructional designers are not responsible for addressing students inquires via the Discussion Board or Course Message / Email. Faculty members are responsible for any course related questions pertaining to the subject being taught.
In order to keep the integrity of the students’ grades, Instructional Designers are prohibited from posting and/or manipulating student’s grades. Faculty are solely responsible for evaluating student’s performance and ultimately responsible for the outcome and reporting of the student’s grades.
If the Grade Center is used for final grade calculations; Instructional Designers are responsible for assisting Faculty by providing consultation services and instructions on how to setup grade columns. It is the Faculty member’s responsibility to verify the accuracy of the Grade Center columns two weeks prior to the deadline for faculty to submit grades in PantherSoft. (See Academic Calendar) Instructional Designers are not responsible for inaccurate calculations.
If experiencing technical difficulties with your personal computer, please contact your university technology provider.
Meet with the Instructional Designer during off peak season to revise or enhance your courses.
Actively login to the Faculty Resource Site for program updates and semester Important Dates.
Role of the FIU Online Program Manager and Program Assistant: Development of Courses
Communicate with unit and/or program to gather course scheduling needs (minimum of 90 days before start of semester)
Ensure course is appropriately scheduled in PantherSoft
Assign Instructional Designer to faculty for development of online course(s)
Communicate to new faculty with an FIU Online welcome email
Email confirmation of scheduled online courses to units and/or programs
Email updates of scheduled online courses to units and/or programs
Adjust any program requests for course additions or deletions
Ensure courses are developed in a timely manner
Ensure courses with zero enrollments are correctly cancelled (uncross-listed correctly) after start of semester
Communicate any issues to unit and/or program to appropriate chair, faculty director or program manager
Ensure instructional designers are following best practices standards during course development established by FIU Online
Provide support to faculty on course related issues or concerns
Be available for face-to-face meetings to meet with units/programs to review program development needs
Investigate any issues that arise and provide units and/or programs with updates
Suggest to units and/or programs strategies that benefit their faculty and students
Communicate important information that impact online courses to units and/or programs
Encourage units/programs to communicate departmental goals and polices to faculty and provide FIU Online with unit/program policies or standards for development of online courses
Role of the Academic Unit/Program: Development of Courses
Review scheduled course with faculty and review unit/program policies and guidelines
Inform FIU Online of faculty/courses for scheduling purposes
Ensure faculty are developing courses that align with unit/program specific goals
Update faculty and FIU Online on any unit/policy specific updates or schedule changes
Inform faculty of resources (contact names/email information for courses that are not developed by the FIU Online team
Provide FIU Online “Important Dates File” 8 weeks prior to semester start date.
Ensure Faculty are adhering to set deadlines stated within Important Dates File
Upload file onto Faculty Resource Site
Manage content, user enrollment and general support questions for the Student Orientation Course(s) and Faculty Resource Site
Collaborate with FIU Online Program Manager and ID Liaison when handling student issues in relation to course content, Instructional Design support and technical support.