FC Online Teaching Certification Process
Faculty who teach in a distance education modality at Fullerton College must be certified to teach online. This includes teaching asynchronous or synchronous, hybrid, and Zoom courses.
Four different options exist for faculty to receive online teaching certification, all of which have been approved by the Distance Education Advisory Committee.
Option 1: Online Teaching Certificate Training Equivalency
If you wish to submit materials that demonstrate completing an Online Teaching Certificate from another college or educational organization, download and fill out this OTEC form. Directions for submission are on the form.
Option 2: FC Online Teaching Certificate
The Fullerton College Online Teaching Certificate builds faculty capacity to use Canvas—the Fullerton College Learning Management System (LMS)–according to online pedagogy’s key guiding principles and includes training in regular and effective contact and accessibility. This six-week, fully online training is offered twice a year. To sign up, email the Distance Education office at online@fullcoll.edu.
The Fullerton College online teaching certification consists of the following modules:
- The Pregame and Kick-Off – specific skills that help all instructors set up a Canvas shell
- The Canvas Challenge – how to make your course student-friendly, utilize various Canvas tools, and create an accessible syllabus
- Accessibility 101 – the importance of accessibility, how to design an accessible Canvas page, Word document, PowerPoint slide deck, Google Doc, etc., how to locate captioned videos in YouTube, and various ways to ensure your instructional videos are captioned
- Training Camp 1 – The Online Education Initiative (OEI) rubric, regular substantive interaction, and instructor-to-student interaction
- Training Camp 2 – Content presentation and videos for online instruction
- Training Camp 3 – Student-to-student interaction, advanced Canvas functions, and the use of accessibility tools in Canvas
- Canvas Post Challenge – assessment, campus support for online learners, homepage and announcements, Office 365, and Studio reflection
Option 3: @ONE Course Path
Enroll in the two approved courses: 10-10-10 Communication That Matters and the facilitated version of Creating Accessible Course Content (The self-paced accessibility course does not count toward certification). These courses are currently free for CCC faculty. Certificates of completion must be submitted to the Distance Education Office.
Browse the @ONE Course Catalog for current course offerings.
Option 4: ACTE CTE Course Path
CTE Faculty Only! Offerings certified by the Association for Career & Technical Education (ACTE) were researched to select courses that cover all requirements for the Fullerton College Online Teaching Certificate Equivalency. Required courses: EL 103R – Teaching Online: A Student-Centered Approach; EL 111 – Assistive Technologies for the Online Learner; EL 113 – Active Learning in an Online Environment; EL 201R – Online Communication: Engaging & Retaining Online Learners. Faculty can be reimbursed for the completion of these courses by submitting a Professional Activity Request form to Staff Development. Certificates of completion must be submitted to the DE Office.
Recertification
After obtaining initial online teaching certification through one of the options listed above, faculty must do the following every three years to remain certified:
- Online Course Survey
- Three hours of professional development focused on online teaching every three years. (Faculty are responsible for tracking their individual professional development, so ensure you have a system for doing this!)
- Professional development options may include:
- Fullerton College-sponsored professional development
- @One course(s)
- Third-party professional development that may be approved on a case-by-case basis by the DE Director and DEDR
Faculty will be notified when it is time to recertify and will be added to the OTC Recertification Canvas shell in order to complete recertification.
Online Course Survey
In November of 2018, the Fullerton College Faculty Senate approved the online course survey to create a structured process to monitor course quality and to confirm the level of faculty-to-student and student-to-student interaction in online courses met the state and federal requirements.
This Online Course Survey is designed to be a tool that helps instructors achieve the best online pedagogy in his/her/their online course. There are two brief surveys, each with a set of questions/elements that you will rate to survey your online course:
- Interaction: five questions and four screenshots
- Accessibility: five questions and four screenshots OR an error-free UDOIT report
The Process
- Instructors will complete the course survey once they are assigned an online course.
- The Distance Education Division Representative (DEDR) will review completed surveys.
- For instructors whose courses are in alignment, the DEDR will recommend to the Distance Education Director (DED) that the instructor’s certification for online teaching be renewed for a three-year period.
- If a course is not in alignment, the DEDR and the instructor will work together to make needed changes. If alignment is achieved, the rep will recommend to the DED that the instructor’s certification for online teaching be renewed for a three-year period.
- If the DEDR and instructor are unable to bring a course into alignment, the instructor will have one year to make changes and do the survey again the following Spring.
- The DEDR will review the course again in the Spring and make recommendations to the DED.
- If the course is still not in alignment, the DEDR will recommend to the DED that the instructor’s certification for online teaching be suspended.
