Program Innovation – Capostosto & Puccio

2026 Program Innovation Award, Brooke Capotosto, Instructional Designer, Dr. Gerard Puccio, SUNY Distinguished Professor & Department Chair, Creativity and Change Leadership Program, SUNY Buffalo State University.

The Creativity and Change Leadership Program at SUNY Buffalo State University is recognized for its innovative, collaborative, and sustained application of OSCQR to support high-quality online learning across the program. Led by Dr. Gerard Puccio, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Department Chair, and supported by Brooke Capotosto, Instructional Designer, the program has embedded OSCQR into a team-based design, development, and review process. Brooke’s OSCQR certification was issued on February 13, 2026, supporting the program’s continued use of OSCQR-informed review and improvement practices.

The program uses OSCQR as a flexible framework for course creation, evaluation, and revision. Through collaboration among faculty, instructional designers, and departmental colleagues, the program has developed shared course templates, structured review cycles, and clear design processes that support consistency, accessibility, and continuous improvement across courses.

OSCQR-informed improvements and practices include:

Developing a common course template to improve clarity, navigation, and consistency across courses
Using team-based course design and review processes to support collaboration among faculty and instructional designers
Aligning course structure, learning activities, and assessments with online learning best practices
Incorporating authentic projects, experiential learning, cooperative learning, and high-impact practices
Using learner feedback to inform course revisions and strengthen engagement, accessibility, and learning

The program’s approach demonstrates how OSCQR can be embedded into a department-level culture of reflection and continuous improvement. While Buffalo State requires each online course to undergo an OSCQR Course Design Review once, the Creativity and Change Leadership Program regularly revisits and refines its courses, using OSCQR as an ongoing framework for quality.

This collaborative model creates coherence across the program while honoring faculty expertise, disciplinary creativity, and learner voice. It also supports sustainability and scalability by ensuring that courses can be updated, maintained, and taught by faculty with confidence.

What stands out most is the program’s commitment to shared responsibility for quality. OSCQR is used not simply as a review requirement, but as a living framework that supports thoughtful, program-wide refinement.

Of their experience, they share:

While Buffalo State requires each online course to undergo an OSCQR Course Design Review once, our program regularly revisits and refines courses using OSCQR as an ongoing framework. This process supports collaboration, consistency, and continuous improvement, ensuring our courses remain aligned with evolving standards for high-quality online learning.

We are pleased to present the 2026 OSCQR Program Innovation Award to the Creativity and Change Leadership Program at SUNY Buffalo State University, led by Dr. Gerard Puccio, for its innovative, collaborative, and sustainable application of OSCQR at the program level.
February 26, 2026

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