Faculty Online Teaching Certification (OTC)
LSC-Online provides an Online Teaching Certification course as a resource for faculty covering recommended practices of online teaching. The topics covered in the course include:
- Best Practices
- Community building
- Learning Management System (LMS) tools
- Online tutoring and proctoring
- Design for accessibility
- Copyright
- SoftChalk
- Cisco WebEx
- Open educational resources.
- Other online resources
Completion of the certification course is supported system-wide and required before a faculty member teaches an online class for the Lone Star College.
The 2-Part Training
- Part 1 is the minimum required before teaching online or hybrid courses for Lone Star College.
- Part 2 is required to be completed within a year of completing Part 1.
Registration for the Online Teaching Certification
The Online Teaching Certification-Quick Onboarding is valid for one year and is obtained by completing modules 1-4.
- Self-enroll by logging into D2L and clicking VTAC Support on the navbar. In the Learning column under the Certification heading, click Enroll Me: OTC.
The Full Online Teaching Certification course builds upon the Quick Onboarding training; upon successful completion of modules 5-10, you will receive the online teaching certification. This certification allows you to teach online courses at Lone Star College and is valid until there is a major LMS change.
This certification course is built using a competency-based education (CBE) model and is designed to be completed at your own pace. There are also accompanying activities so you can begin building an online course shell while taking the certification course.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What is the difference between the Quick Onboarding and the Full Online Teaching Certification (OTC)?
The Quick Onboarding modules are the prerequisite for completing the Full Online Teaching Certification (OTC). It was designed to cover some basic information. A faculty member who completes Quick Onboarding will be certified to teach online up to one (1) year. Within that year, they will have to complete the Full OTC. The Full OTC covers additional online teaching resources and more in depth information about services provided by Lone Star College for faculty members teaching online. Completing the Full OTC will certify faculty members to teach online until there is a major LMS change.
Q. Didn't the Full OTC used to expire after 3 years?
Yes, the Full OTC used to expire after 3 years; however, that was changed in April 2019. Certification is now valid until there is a major LMS change. Because of this change, the Advanced OTC, which served as a re-certification course, has been discontinued. Due to a limitation in MyWorkshops, you still might get an email about recertification. You can safely ignore that email.
Q. What happened to the Advanced OTC?
The Advanced OTC was primarily a re-certification course, targeting faculty who completed the Angel LMS certification or one of the Online Teaching Certification 6-Week cohorts whose certifications expired. Because the Full OTC no longer expires after 3 years, there is no longer a need for a recertification course. Those who have completed the Advanced OTC are still fully certified, just like the Full OTC, until there is a major LMS change.
Q. I enrolled in the Advanced OTC, which has since been discontinued. Can I still finish my work in the course and obtain certification?
Yes, completion of the Advanced OTC will count like the Full OTC and will certify you to teach online for Lone Star College until there is a major LMS change. All of the Advanced OTC training modules were designed based on a competency-based model. This means if you are already familiar with the content covered in each module, you can go straight to the assessment and advance by scoring 80% or higher on the assessment within each module.
Q. How do Deans or Chairs check to see what certifications instructors have and who may need an update?
There is an Online Teaching Certification (OTC) report which is updated about one month prior to the beginning of every long semester. The report can be found on the AIR Portal by going to [Discovery (PowerBI)] and searching for "Online Teaching Certification" (do not search for "OTC" as that will only bring up outdated versions of the report).
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns at vtac@lonestar.edu or you can speak directly with one of your campus Instructional Designers/Technologists - see Meet Your LSC-Online Representative.