This toolkit was developed in AY24-25 by the USC Associate Vice Provost for Online Education in collaboration with members of the USC Online Learning Council. The purpose of this toolkit is to provide guidance and promote shared standards for fostering best practices in online education at USC.

This toolkit is for administrators, faculty and staff working in online education at USC, and its contents can be used to:

• Access carefully designed online course templates developed and honed by colleagues at USC which can be imported and/or adapted into your Learning Management System (LMS)
• Review and align online course quality with best practices/standards
• Review and evaluate online programs quality and outcomes

Please note that the contents/links contained in this toolkit may be updated in the future by individual units or departments at USC and you are encouraged to consult with those relevant units or departments for any updates or changes that may have been made.

For more information or questions about this toolkit, please contact usccet@usc.edu.

The Tools:

1. Online course level resources
2. Online program level resources

Online Course Templates for your Learning Management System (LMS)

This tool, developed by USC Brightspace, is a standard course template which can be imported and/or adapted for use for online course(s) in the Brightspace LMS.

This tool, developed by the USC Bovard College, is a standard course template, which can be imported and/or adapted for use for online course(s) in the Canvas LMS.

This tool, developed by the USC Price School, is a standard course template, which can be imported and/or adapted for use for online course(s) in the Canvas LMS.

Online Course Quality Scorecard and Tips

This tool, developed in collaboration with the USC Online Learning Council, offers a scorecard for assessing the quality of an online course at USC. It was adapted from a combination of scorecards developed and available from the Online Learning Consortium.

This tool, developed by faculty at the USC Rossier School of Education, is a presentation introducing key principles of adult learning and tips for their implementation in online professional graduate programs, including key considerations.

Online Program Quality Evaluation Framework

This tool, developed in collaboration with the USC Online Learning Council, offers a comprehensive framework for evaluating the quality and key outcomes of an online program at USC. It also proposes sample methods and includes sample instruments and resources which can be useful in conducting the evaluation.