Delta College has a variety of online courses that have been fully developed and aligned to the CVC-OEI Course Design Rubric and are available for adoption by Delta faculty. As per the Content Usage MOU signed by SJDC and CTA, Delta College faculty who are interested in adopting CVC-Quality Reviewed/Badged “master” course shells must sign the Faculty Adopter Agreement.
CVC Badged Courses Available for Use at Delta College
If you are assigned to teach a class at Delta for which you do not have content, you may be able to import and adapt one of Delta's CVC-Quality Reviewed, Badged courses. Most courses are available for adoption. Please review the list closely and any notes regarding adoption.
Note: Courses are available for adoption and use at Delta College only.
Some of these CVC Quality Reviewed Delta courses even use Open Educational Resources (OER) for Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) to students. These courses have been through a rigorous Peer Online Course Review (POCR) process to ensure alignment to the highest standards of online teaching in California.
How to View or Adopt a Master Course
If you are interested in viewing and/or adopting one of Delta’s CVC-Badged “Master” courses, you must sign the Adopter Agreement form, which is supported by the Canvas Master Shell Content Usage Agreement, an MOU between the SJDCCD and SJDCTA.
Once you sign and submit the Adopter Agreement form, you will be given a brand new Canvas “Development” (DEV) shell that contains the content of the master course. You will find it either on your Canvas Dashboard, or in Canvas under Courses >> All Courses. It will be named something like:
PSYCH 1 (YOUR NAME) DEV MASTER
If you choose to use the course in your teaching, you can – and should – customize the content to meet your needs and reflect your personality, teaching style, and presence in the class.
Licensing and Attribution
Delta College's "Master" courses carry an Attribution Noncommercial Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC). This means:
- You may remix, tweak, and build upon this work, but you agree to do so non-commercially.
- You agree to credit the original author (the faculty member who developed the class) in all revised versions of the course.
- You agree to use the course content and all materials for teaching assignments at Delta College only.
- Under no circumstances will you import any of the course content into other learning management systems or into other institutions' systems.
- You understand that if you fail to follow the guidelines, you will lose access to future master courses.
Faculty who violate the above may be subject to disciplinary action and may forfeit the opportunity to teach online in the future. (Canvas Master Shell Content Usage Agreement § 17.9.5.4)
When teaching with one of Delta’s Master courses, both original and revised versions must retain attribution to the original author, and license information:
Customizing the Master Course
Here is a starting list of the most important things you should address before “going live” with the course:
Clarify Your Role
In addition to inclusion of the CC BY-NC license and author attribution, you should include a statement written in student-friendly language that the course was developed by another Delta College Professor, and students will see videos and other material created by that professor. However, you will be the one teaching the course, grading work, and answering questions. The following is a sample statement you may edit to your liking. The best places to put this would be on the course Homepage, and in the Syllabus and/or Welcome Module.
This course was designed and developed by Delta College (Discipline) Professor, (Name). You will see many instructional videos of Professor (Name) throughout this course. However, I am teaching our class this semester and will be here to guide you through our material, grade your work, and answer any questions. The best way to contact me is: (Preferred Contact Info)
Review Every Part of the Course
Review each page you plan to use and replace information specific to the professor who authored the course, with your own. For example, contact info, images, Bitmojis, welcome video, etc. While every page should be checked, this is particularly important on the Homepage, Syllabus, Announcements, and the first module, often titled “Welcome,” “Getting Started,” or “Orientation.” References to the course author may also be present in Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes/Exams.
The following list offers a starting point but is not exhaustive. It is important to check all facets of the course and make sure it is appropriately updated to reflect to you. That said, instructional videos from the original course author are okay, when using the above attribution statements. The goal is not to remove every bit of the original course author, but to simply prevent confusion about who the current instructor is.
1. Homepage
• Update the course name, 5-digit number, and semester
• Remove the course author’s welcome video, images, contact info, etc.
• Include your own custom welcome message/video and images
• Include your contact information
2. Syllabus
• Update 5-digit course number, semester, and all dates
• Replace course author’s contact and other personalizing info with your own
3. Announcements
• Update announcements, especially the first one which is often the “Welcome Letter”
• Check for any announcements that are set to post automatically on certain dates
4. “Welcome/Orientation” Module and Course Completion Module (if applicable)
• Replace course author’s contact and other personalizing info with your own
• Double check any pages titled: About the Professor, Professor Contact Info & Office Hours, Communication Plan, Need Help, or similar
5. Assignments, Quizzes, Exams
• Check for any references to the course author. For example: Questions about this assignment? Reach out to me at: <email address>
6. Update “Available,” “Due,” and “Accept Until” dates
7. Check for locked or date-controlled Modules
8. Check for Module Prerequisites
9. Check all other areas of the course.
Note: It is the responsibility of the course adopter to make sure the course is updated appropriately.
View the Course as a Student
Use the Student View feature to walk through the course as a student. This will show you exactly what students will see, and allow you to easily identify which Modules, Pages, Assignments and Announcements are Published; which course tools are turned on; and whether your images and videos are visible.
Run the Link Validator
Catching broken links before students do will save everyone a lot of frustration! See this page to learn how to quickly find and fix erroneous links: How do I validate links in a course?
Important Note About Master Course Alignment
As of adoption, Delta’s Master Courses are fully aligned to Sections A-D of the California Virtual Campus Course Design Rubric:
- Course Navigation
- Interaction
- Assessment
- Accessibility
Significant changes made to course content, other than those recommended above, may bring the course out of alignment or cause some content to be inaccessible.
Questions? Contact Us
Please reach out to us if you have any questions!
- Course Design: Jennifer.Azzaro@deltacollege.edu
- Accessibility: Martin.LaGrow@deltacollege.edu
Psychology 2
Completing the POCR review process for my Psych 02 (Statistics for the Social Sciences) course was a challenging and rewarding experience. The process made me view my course through a new equity lens to make sure all students had the accessibility to be successful in the course. I learned a lot from the process and my skills on CANVAS were sharpened. I am able to use the information I learned from the POCR review and apply it to other courses that I teach.
Sociology 1A and 1B
I would highly recommend the POCR process for any instructors seeking to take their online course to the next level. Having gone through the process twice, I can say with confidence that my online courses are more organized and student-centered than ever. This process really allows you to dive deeply into online learning and provides you with the opportunity to develop a course that takes into consideration the varying learning styles of students.
English 1A
The POCR process helped me to fully align the course content with course learning objectives. Now each assignment has specific learning objectives that are measurable. Every learning task, whether it be a lecture, reading, written assignment, discussion, video, or image, is purposeful and contributes to the desired course outcomes. Students know the who, what, where, when, and why of every action in the course. The accessibility component was invaluable also.
Communication Studies 1A
POCR review has allowed me to offer a much better course, but more importantly, it allows students to learn more. It has transformed my online teaching and it’s the one thing I recommend everyone do if they want to teach online.
Music 4
I thought my classes were pretty well organized and dialed in until I went through the POCR process. I was able to raise my online course to a much higher standard. The process is very structured and clear and for me it revealed several areas that needed improvement. The support team were all amazing and very well organized and more importantly, they understand how challenging it is to design a class while teaching. I would encourage every instructor who teaches online to consider the POCR process.
English 1B
Moving my Eng 1B through POCR made me rethink every choice I make in my online teaching. Is this the most effective way to structure a lecture? Is this the most impactful and relatable assignment? Have I taken enough steps to ensure that no student gets lost? Looking at my class with fresh eyes has made my class more organized, accessible, and engaging for my students.
Education 10, 12, 13, 14 and 70
At a time when the Covid-19 pandemic required faculty to become proficient at executing virtual instruction, I found the POCR process to be invaluable to my goal of designing effective hybrid and asynchronous courses that supported my students’ success. I frequently receive positive feedback from students describing their appreciation for varied elements of our courses spanning content presentation, interaction, assessment, and accessibility which I attribute largely to the professional development that I have received through the POCR process.
Statistics 12
By going through the POCR review process, my class is more accessible, presentable, and organized. Students liked accessing this class which was organized and manageable.
Psychology 1, 2 and 5
Aligning my courses with POCR standards improved my awareness of online course best practices, including addressing diverse perspectives, overcoming accessibility barriers, enhancing content presentation, clarifying assignment instructions, boosting online student interaction, and optimizing the overall student experience, which has significantly improved my courses and student learning.
Canvas Lite & Users GroupAll Delta faculty are members of the Canvas Lite & Users Group.
Join us there to ask questions of experts and your colleagues! Let’s build a community of best practices.
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