iTech Fellows Program

What is required to teach Hybrid or Online at UW Tacoma?

To offer a course hybrid or online at the University of Washington Tacoma, the faculty teaching must be a certified iTech Fellow. The iTech Fellows Initiative is a collaboration between the Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (EVCAA) Office, our academic programs, the Office of Digital Learning, and the Faculty Resource Center. 

This is a faculty-approved process and consists of two steps: 

1. Attend an iTech Fellows workshop (typically offered three times a year) 
2. Within one year of workshop completion, build your course and pass a Quality Matters Review by 1 Certified iTech Fellow and one staff member from the Office of Digital Learning. 

Using Quality Matters, a nationally recognized, consortium-developed rubric for online course review ensures that critical elements of design (not content) work together to ensure that your students will achieve your desired learning outcomes.

The Fellows workshop and course development comes with a $1,000 stipend. The first half is paid by the Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs on completion of the workshop; the second half paid by the instructor's academic program on successful completion of  QM peer review. Any director/dean who feels that their $500 share of the stipend would be a burden can request special funding from the Executive Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs. 

Once you become a certified iTech Fellow, you are free to teach any course that your program supports as hybrid or online.

Quality Matters (QM) Rubric
List of UWT iTech Fellows & Peer Reviewers

How does UW Tacoma define Hybrid and Online? 

The University of Washington Tacoma has three designations for technology-enhanced pedagogy. The two that create 40% or more reduced seat time must be taught by instructors that have successfully completed professional development in the online framework, and taken their course through QM peer review. Instructors that participate in the UW Tacoma iTech Fellows program become certified to do these peer reviews, as well as teach online and hybrid courses without further review. 

Definitions:

Campus Course  - Courses where up to  39% of scheduled in-person class time may be replaced with online learning tools and content.  (Synchronous online content counts as campus time.)

Hybrid Course  - Courses where between 40-99% of scheduled in-person class time is replaced with asynchronous online learning tools. Also, there must be at least one in-person class meeting.  In other words, synchronous online time cannot entirely substitute for in-person class time.

Distance Learning (Online) Course -  Courses where in-person interaction between students and professors is entirely replaced with online learning tools and content, that do not require a synchronous online presence of all students.

These courses must be designated in the Time Schedule, identifying whether the course will be 1)  Hybrid (40-99% online) and when it meets on campus, or fully Online courses (100% online). It is important for students to see these designations when registering for classes because there are implications for military students, international students, and for classroom utilization. 

Rationale:  This policy takes into consideration the problems that the DL course designation pose for international students and veterans, by restricting the number of courses given that label to those with 100% online content.   It also creates a second designation, “Hybrid” (to be designated by a "B" in the Time Schedule), to indicate courses with substantial but not total, online content (40-99%).   This policy is also more precise than previous ones, and excludes flipped courses, service learning courses, field courses and study abroad courses from the DL or Hybrid categories.   The idea here is to reduce confusion amid the many types of courses that depart from the traditional classroom format, and clarify the nature of those in the “Distance Learning” and the proposed new “Hybrid” designations.  It is also intended to be very clear to students that DL – means all online, and H means something more than 40% online and some campus time. 

What is required to initiate and pass Quality Matters Review?

Once you have attended the iTech Fellows workshop and have completed building your hybrid or online course site in Canvas, you will need to prepare for review.

• Fill out the Internal QM Review Spreadsheet or arrange a meeting with your reviewer to walk them through your course and how you met standards
• Satisfy ALL 3-point Essential Standards on the rubric
• A total overall score of 81 out of 95 points with NO partial point scores. 

What approvals do I need if I want to teach hybrid or online? 

A number of steps are involved for all courses offered in hybrid/online format. Be sure to have the permission of your dean/director/chair to develop and offer a course online.

IF this is a new course never offered in any modality, please have it approved as a UWT course for the catalog first. All UW standard paperwork will need to be completed and the course approved before applying to iTech and taking it through review. On UW new course paperwork, DL questions are left blank at the UWT campus as we do not participate in the Seattle DL process.

Are there any deadlines I need to keep in mind?

Check with your program on Time Schedule deadlines. The Schedule now allows for designation of both online and hybrid (40% or more online) formats, but should be set before the Time Schedule goes live.

What else do I need to know?

It's not about the technology; it's about engaging our learners, demonstrating our passion for the subject matter, and learning from colleagues trying new pedagogies. Here's a quick list of 8 lessons learned:

8 Lessons Learned from Teaching Online from EDUCAUSE on Vimeo.

What if I was just hired and iTech is not offered before I have to teach?

We understand that sometimes timing is an issue. We have implemented 2 temporary solutions to allow faculty, who need to teach online or hybrid before an iTech workshop opportunity becomes available, to have a Quality Matters approved course. 

Option 1: Build your course and take it through the QM review process. Once your course passes, you can teach it. If you do not have iTech certification, you will need to get EACH course you teach QM reviewed PRIOR to offering it. You will essentially be on a "Waiver" and should plan to attend the next scheduled iTech workshop.

Option 2: Teach using a Canvas course site built by a certified iTech Fellow. The iTech Fellow should meet with you to walk through the structure and alignment of the course activities/learning outcomes. They will need to send an email to the Office of Digital Learning stating that they agree to be a mentor for the faculty member teaching. You will essentially be on a "Waiver" and should plan to attend the next scheduled iTech workshop.