Policy 116.1

Senate Policy 116.1

(Proposal 12-19)
(Proposal 52-20)

All instructors and facilitators of online and remote courses will be qualified to teach online. 

All Online and Remote courses will be peer reviewed.

All online courses^1 will meet or exceed a set of minimum standards and be peer reviewed by
appropriately trained and officially certified faculty and staff peer reviewers for adherence to
currently recognized best-practices for online education. One official set of internationally
recognized and widely adopted standards for online courses will be adopted and used
university-wide. 

Reviews will be limited to aspects such as online course structure and design. Reviews will not
consider domain content, which remains the purview of the instructor. 

Online course reviews will address aspects of course structure and design such as:

  • Course navigation facilitates ease of use
  • Instructions make clear how to get started and where to find various course components
  • Presence and assessment of learning objectives
  • Course grading policy is stated clearly at the beginning of the course
  • Course meets Michigan Tech’s accessibility requirements
  • Michigan Tech’s student support services and resources are articulated in the course or
    linked to 

Remote course reviews will be run according to processes and by peers assigned by the
departments and in-line with procedures for observing face to face classes. 

The online and remote course review process is a collegial, iterative, peer review process of
continuous improvement. Every online and remote course review is intended to result in the
course meeting, or exceeding, the minimum standards after any necessary course revisions
have been made. 

Any review conducted under this policy is strictly about the course and is not about assessing
faculty. Results of course peer review as outlined in this policy must not be used in an attempt
to evaluate teaching effectiveness, nor be used in any part of the promotion and tenure process. 

 


1 Online sections of graduate research, where graduate students are working under their advisor and
no instruction or content is delivered online (listed with a schedule type of “research”), are exempted
from this requirement. “All online courses” includes online courses designed and/or marketed in
cooperation with outside vendors.