EWU Abbreviated Rubric for Online Course Requirements
Guide to Passing
Category 1: Learner Support & Resources
1A - Per university policy, course syllabus is accessible and includes: Student Academic Integrity, Minimum Work Expectations, Grading Information, Holidays & Religious Accommodations, and Course Participation/Attendance Policy. Here is an example of a Sample Syllabus Language.
Student Academic Integrity: Instructors must include a reference to university academic integrity standards and a clear statement that suspected violations will be handled in accordance with those standards.
Example: Academic Integrity is the cornerstone of the university. Any student who attempts to gain an unfair advantage over other students by violating the Academic Integrity policy may be reported to the university and may receive a sanction up to and including XF for the course, suspension, or expulsion from the university. This policy is on the EWU website: https://inside.ewu.edu/policies/knowledge-base/wac-172-90-student-academic-integrity-3/.
Minimum Work Expectations (4-3): Instructors must provide sufficient information and detail to establish that the minimum amount of work expected of students is consistent with the assignment of credit hours to the course.
Example: As per the EWU policy for Program and Course Management, one (1) credit hour for distance or online learning is defined as three (3) hours of instruction and/or student work per week that leads to equivalent learning outcomes required for an on-campus course. This course is a four (4) credit-hour class, and students can expect to spend twelve (12) hours per week watching videos, completing assignments, quizzes, and projects (outside preparation).
Example: Describe each assignment type and what is expected for each so it is evident how much work will be required each week.
Grading Information: Instructors must specify the process by which each course is graded.
Holidays & Religious Accommodations: Instructors must link to the Holidays & Religious Accommodations policy or provide the text of chapter four of the policy.
Course Participation/Attendance Policy: Instructors must provide students with the course attendance policy.
Example: Since this course is an online course utilizing asynchronous learning materials and activities, students are in charge of managing their own time. The ability to communicate through technology with peers and others is important to the development and success of the professional businessperson; therefore, communication with the instructors and peers is considered particularly important. It is the student’s responsibility to complete and submit assignments by the posted deadlines and communicate difficulties or questions in a timely manner. Watching course videos and completing assignments, tests, and quizzes is required as attendance.
1B - Course contains relevant information that orients students to the course and academic support services. Including:
The easiest way to satisfy this requirement is to import the “Getting Started” module from the EWU Online Course Template. Here are instructions for viewing/importing the Getting Started module from the Commons. Once imported, the following pages will need to be updated or deleted:
About this Course
Meet Your Faculty
Course Communication (required information)
Getting Started Discussion: Introduce Yourself
Class schedule: The syllabus page will automatically generate a schedule if using due dates in Canvas.
Instructor contact information: Include your name, primary method of communication, and any additional contact information you would like students to have.
Hours of availability: Instructors must notify students of their hours of availability. These should be roughly the equivalent to face-to-face availability.
Modes/times of communication: Faculty are advised to message students in similar ways to that of face-to-face classrooms (i.e. communicating answers to common questions to the whole class at once) to mimic face-to-face classroom efficiencies.
1C - Using tools available to the university, all instructional materials are made accessible.
All documents are at least 50% accessible (per the Ally Accessibility Tool): All documents, PDFs, images, etc. need to be readable by a screen reader if a student has a visual impairment.
Canvas has a tool in the navigation pane called the Ally Accessibility Report. To make your files accessible follow these steps:
Click on the Ally Accessibility Report in the navigation pane (you may need to enable the tool in Navigation of Settings)
Click “Content” to view all files within the course
Click directly on any file that has an accessibility score of <50%
Make any necessary changes
Images: Add an image description
Word Documents: Download the file and follow the instructions given by Ally
PDFs: Download the file and use Adobe Acrobat Pro to autotag the document and run an accessibility check (at about 8 minutes in this accessibility video, there is a demo of how to make PDFs accessible)
Other: Follow the instructions given by Ally
Re-upload any edited files directly into Ally (this will replace any instance of it within your course)
Here is an in-depth guide for using the Ally tool: Ally Accessibility Checker: EWU Canvas Instructor Support. We recommend removing any unused pages prior to using the tool so you are not doing unnecessary work.
All videos must be captioned: It is federally required to caption all audio/visual materials, both for students with hearing deficiencies and for students with non-traditional learning schedules/spaces.
You can generate automatic captions for existing audio files (e.g., MP3s) and visual files (e.g., MP4s) using Panopto Recordings. Here are instructions for adding auto-captions.
Any new videos will automatically be captioned. These captions are generally only 60-70% accurate, so it is best if you are able to review and edit them afterwards. However, just doing the auto-captions is sufficient for this requirement to be met at this time. Here are instructions for editing captions.
Category 2: Regular and Substantive Interaction
2A - Substantive Interactions: Students are engaged through at least two of the following:
Providing direct instruction (recorded or live content lectures)
Assessing or providing feedback on a student's coursework. Evidence of this must be included in your syllabus or course orientation materials
Providing information or responding to questions about the content of a course or competency. We assume this is occurring regularly throughout the course
Facilitating a group discussion regarding the content of a course or competency
2B - Course provides the opportunity for substantive interactions with the student on a predictable and scheduled basis.
To satisfy this requirement, coursework must have deadlines throughout the term and be on a regular basis (ie: weekly).
2C - Course provides clear course communication guidelines indicating that the instructor will promptly and proactively monitor student progress and respond to student requests for instructional support.
Faculty must provide clear course communication policies indicating that the instructor will promptly and proactively monitor student progress and respond to student requests for instructional support.
An example is given in the next page. This example can be found on the Course Communications page in the Getting Started module. Instructions for viewing/importing the Getting Started module.
Course Communication
Communication Method
Communication with the instructor is through Canvas messaging and in the discussions. Communication methods from the instructor include course messages, announcements, and comments in discussion and assignment evaluations.
Communication Expectations
The expectation in this course is that your behavior in all manners of communication remain courteous and professional. Communications with either students or instructors should be respectful of other people's opinions and uses appropriate language and tone.
Communication Response Times
Response time for assignment feedback: 7 days
Response time for auto-graded assessments: 24 hours
Response time to open-ended assessments: 7 days
Response time to emails/student communications: 2 business days
Category 3: Course Alignment
3A - Course learning outcomes are defined within course expectations.
CLOs are the goals for the course: what students should know and/or be able to do once the course is complete. Listing course outcomes throughout the course helps to: identify knowledge and skills you expect students to obtain by the end of the course, direct weekly and assignment student learning, and provides evidence of alignment of outcomes, assignments, and assessments.
3B - Learning outcomes are defined for each learning topic.
Each module/topic needs to have learning outcomes listed in the course. These module outcomes are the signposts on the path to the end goals (CLOs). We recommend including these on a module/topic overview page. Visible learning outcomes are especially important for engaging adult learners, and can remedy some confusion ahead of important assignments or assessments.
3C - Learning outcomes are aligned with learning activities.
Activities should align with the verbs of your learning outcomes. If you say “understand”, then a quiz would be appropriate. If you say “demonstrate”, then an assignment where the student actually demonstrates the outcome would be appropriate.
Category 4 - Course Structure and Design
4A - All relevant course content provided by the instructor is as complete as possible and available within the University learning management systems.
All pages/modules should be published, unless they are specified as being for instructor-use only.
4B - All course links direct students to the correct and most recent course item or external resource.
You can see them by going to Settings > Validate Links in Content. This will run a list of all broken links in your course. If you have any pages or assignments that you are not using in your course, it is best to delete those prior to running the link validator. The link validator will also list links to other Canvas courses (like the support guides), but so long as they work when you click on them, then those are okay.
4C - Course is organized and easy to navigate. Students can clearly understand all components and structure of the course. (Instructional Technology will review and provide recommendations to enhance student engagement).
We typically recommend organizing your modules by week and in order of how you would like students to work through them (readings/lectures, assignments, then quizzes, etc.). If you would like to see an example, please view our EWU Online Course Template. Instructions for viewing/importing the EWU Online Course Template.