2004 Quality Review | Implementing Peer Review | Related Links
In May 2004 at the request of the DLESE Steering Committee, NSF funded an effort to assess the effectiveness of the current policies and procedures for assuring the high quality of all resources and services within the DLESE, and to develop a plan for implementing a more comprehensive, integrated approach (see Key Documents below).
The Quality Review was led by Annette de Charon, Don Elthon and Michelle Hall and started with a comprehensive review of all previous community documents outlining the goals and vision for DLESE. These included the Community Plan, Strategic Plan, Integrated Work Plan, 2003 Quality workshop, and community recommendations from several annual meetings (Document 1, Document 2). A draft Quality Plan was developed that brought many of the recommendations affecting the quality of the user experience in DLESE together. The draft plan identified a number of areas in which more focused work by the community was needed to move forward on improving the quality of DLESE.
In response to the draft plan and a request from the plan authors, the DLESE Steering Committee approved a set of recommendations enabling working groups to begin developing detailed strategies for implementing some of the more complex elements. Community participation was encouraged for all working groups and over 50 community members contributed. Discussions of the working groups can be found on the swiki pages. White papers from each group are found on the Quality Workshop pages.
On October 31-November 2, a community workshop was held to integrate the recommendations of the draft plan with those of the working groups. Out of that came a set of recommendations reviewed by the DLESE Management Council and submitted to the Steering Committee for approval on January 15, 2005. The Steering Committee met on January 18-19, 2005 and made a series of decisions (Document 1, Document 2) about implementation of the recommendations.
A key recommendation of the Steering Committee was to begin reviewing all DLESE resources for scientific accuracy and currency. In February 2005, an integrated team of Core Service members worked to develop criteria for scientific review of DLESE instructional resources. Additionally, we developed a tool to support that review process. Testing by Core Service members and participants at the 2005 Annual Meeting has provided valuable feedback for improving the review process. Recently, NSF has provided funding to develop a full-scale peer review process of both science and pedagogical content of DLESE instructional resources. To carry out the review, we are currently recruiting Associate Editors to oversee review of resources in their discipline as well as pedagogical and content expert reviewers. Additionally, we are looking for resource owners who might want their resources to be some of the first reviewed. To volunteer or get more information, contact us at dlese-review@scieds.com .
DLESE Quality Workshop and Related Documents
DLESE Peer Review Opportunities
DLESE Peer Review FAQ
DLESE Peer Review Criteria