Master Course Model
What are Master Courses?
A master course is basically a fully developed "consensus course," created initially by a faculty SME nominated by program and college leadership. These courses typically require minimal, if any, changes made to the structure, content, and assessments to be ready for fully asynchronous online delivery. Master courses are managed by colleges and programs. Specifically, department chairs, the Master Course SME, Course Coordinator, and department faculty work together to review, update, revise, and maintain courses. These courses represent faculty collaboration, to help ensure equivalent rigor, outcomes, assessments, and continuous improvement in online degree programs. Each college’s senior and program leadership can “quick enroll” in master courses at-will.
Why Use Master Courses?
- Automation of the course copy process for scalability and efficiency.
- Better continuous improvement process—using feedback and research-based practices to improve for future offerings.
- Reduce the labor required to roll out new courses each term.
- Help maintain consistency and quality when a single course has multiple sections and instructors.
- Easier to perform content and technical integrity checks by faculty, chair, designers.
- Reduces propagation of errors every time a new iteration of the course is offered.
- Provide adjuncts with a developed course requiring only targeted areas for personalization and customization.
- Simplify accreditation reviews.
Master Coures Portal
This website helps orient you to the available master courses that you may personalize to teach, identified by their unique Blackboard course shell identifier (Course ID), syllabus, and design process. The portal was launched with master courses developed from spring 2020 and onward. Updates are made each semester. Visit the website to find Master Course resources, identify a master course ID, and request master course copies.
View the Master Course Portal
