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The OCTBR (pronounced “October”) tool is a Creative Commons-licensed rubric, and related checklists, developed originally for health science instructors, to provide perspectives and resources for building online courses, assessments and experiences.

OCTBR has been influenced by student survey feedback, and excellent Creative Commons-licensed rubrics and tools, namely CSU-Chico’s QOLT (Quality Online Learning and Teaching) instrument, and Joan Van Duzer’s Instructional Design Tips for Online Learning, and reflects on peer-reviewed learning and assessment strategies specific to health science education.

OCTBR is explicitly not prescriptive, but offers concrete strategies for integrating best overall practices in online courses, and successful assessment and learning design in the health sciences. 

To improve OCTBR’s ease of use, a group of checklists have been developed for quick reference, since faculty availability, especially among clinical educators, can vary greatly.

The different checklists are named to match the time available to build a course or courses launching in the Fall semester (“October”).

If a faculty member has an extremely short amount of time to design a course, they would use the Autumn checklist to consider possibilities for their course.  If at least a month is available, rather than weeks, the Summer checklist is appropriate. The Spring checklist is for those who have at least three months to build a course, while the Winter checklist is for a course designed almost a year in advance, or several courses developed by a department team.

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