Institutional Excellence – SUNY Farmingdale

Through a coordinated strategy that integrates instructional design, academic leadership, and faculty development, Farmingdale has established OSCQR not as a one-time review process, but as a sustained framework guiding the design, delivery, and renewal of online, hybrid, and synchronous courses.

At the foundation of this work is a robust course development and review ecosystem. All courses are built using OSCQR-aligned templates adapted from SUNY Online models and enhanced with institution-specific innovations, including department-customized course designs, embedded support resources, accessibility-forward materials, and structured opportunities for faculty presence and learner engagement. A dynamic PowerBI dashboard further supports quality assurance by enabling chairs and faculty to track course approval, review status, and renewal cycles, ensuring alignment between course scheduling and OSCQR standards.

Farmingdale’s commitment to quality is reinforced through structured faculty development. FAR 201, a required OSCQR-based course development experience, engages faculty in hands-on application of OSCQR standards as they design and refine their courses. To date, this effort has supported the development of over 1,000 courses and trained hundreds of instructors, strengthening alignment between learning outcomes, assessment, accessibility, and Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI).

Building on this foundation, Farmingdale has implemented a four-year OSCQR course review and renewal process, supported by dedicated instructional design resources, renewal dashboards, and faculty-facing courses such as FAR 301. This systematic approach ensures that courses remain current, accessible, and aligned with evolving standards for high-quality online learning.

What distinguishes Farmingdale’s work is its intentional focus on capacity building at multiple levels. The institution has expanded OSCQR training beyond faculty to include deans and department chairs, creating a shared understanding of online course quality across academic leadership. This approach strengthens alignment between institutional priorities, instructional design practices, and departmental decision-making, fostering a culture where quality is both visible and shared.

Farmingdale’s model is also notable for its scalability and sustainability. Through institutionally funded work-for-hire course development, shared course templates, collaborative design processes, and ongoing accessibility and support services, the College has created a system that can be maintained, replicated, and extended across programs. These efforts are complemented by a growing ecosystem of faculty development opportunities, stackable credentials, and community-based resource sharing that further reinforces a culture of continuous improvement.

A key contributor to this work is Nicole Garret, instructional designer at Farmingdale State College, whose leadership has been instrumental in advancing OSCQR implementation across the institution. Nicole is a SUNY Online Certified OSCQR Reviewer (February 5, 2026) and the first SUNY instructional designer to earn formal OSCQR Trainer certification (January 27, 2026). Her work in course review, faculty training, and the design of OSCQR-based learning experiences has strengthened Farmingdale’s ability to sustain and scale its online quality initiatives.

Of this work, Nicole reflects:

Understanding the rationale for each OSCQR standard is important, but it is incomplete without application. The relationship between theory and practice becomes much clearer through hands-on activity… OSCQR trainings have the potential to become collaborative spaces for sharing ideas and solving problems together.

Her emphasis on hands-on, collaborative engagement reflects the broader institutional approach at Farmingdale, where OSCQR is used not only as a quality rubric, but as a shared framework for dialogue, reflection, and continuous improvement.

SUNY Farmingdale State College demonstrates how OSCQR can be implemented as a comprehensive institutional strategy—one that aligns leadership, faculty development, instructional design, and student support to enhance online course quality at scale.

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We are proud to present the 2026 OSCQR Institutional Excellence Award to SUNY Farmingdale State College for its innovative, collaborative, and sustainable implementation of OSCQR to advance online education and learner success.
February 26, 2026

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