# Case studies of applying for the Top Level Courses designation


*In my [previous
post](http://reganmian.net/blog/2010/10/26/introducing-individual-top-level-courses-case-studies),
I introduced the course case studies. In this post, I will describe
their experiences with applying for the Top Level Courses designation.*

Both Professor B1 and Professor A2 were relatively early in applying for
the Top Level Course designation. In both cases, they realized that
their existing material was a very good fit for this new program.
Professor A2’s school began applying for courses in 2004, and when they
asked who had courses that could fit, he volunteered, because he knew
that the existing resources they had developed would be very appropriate
for the Top Level Course requirements. He also believed that it would be
an honor to receive the designation.

Professor B1’s story is similar, she applied for the university-level
designation in 2005, and in 2008 her team applied for the national level
designation. She says that they never applied for the designation
excellent course because they wanted the recognition, but because they
thought that through the process of applying they could provide a better
course for the students. When the Top Level Courses guidelines came out,
they realized that they were even more detailed and stringent than the
university’s own excellent courses, so they decided to use the
application to improve their course further. They also benefitted from
help from the school of online education in creating the website.
Although she said that getting the designation was not very important
for her herself, she does mention that universities now take Top Level
Courses into consideration when assessing professors for promotion.

Professor B2 also applied for the designation in 2005, but Professor A1
did not apply until 2008, five years after the Top Level Courses project
had been launched. She said she knew about it the whole time, but
thought that as long as others knew she had a good course, that would be
sufficient, and did not consider applying for this designation. In 2008,
her department began to put more focus on developing Top Level Courses,
as part of a process of becoming an international first class
university, and expand its influence. At that point, she decided to
submit her own course for consideration. An added factor was that a new
textbook, which she had developed, had won a national Top Level Courses
price for teaching materials the year before, as well as the innovative
adding of an internship to the course design.

Both Professor A1 and Professor B1 also mentioned planning for their
legacy as factors in the decision to apply for the Top Level Courses
project. Professor A1 retired in 2008, and had anyway been planning to
make recordings and leave behind a memory of his teaching at the
university. Professor B1 explains that she will retire in a few years,
and needs to find some young professors that she can train to continue
the courses. Building up the course teaching team through the Top Level
Courses Project can be one way to further this goal.

When applying, many of the professors visited existing Top Level courses
for inspiration, as well as getting support from their colleagues.
Professor A1 visited other courses by people in his department, to see
how they had done it, and the academic affairs office at Professor B1’s
university organized for new applicants to learn from people with very
good Top Level Courses, both from their own school and from the outside.
Both Professors B1 and B2 also visited other courses online, and in fact
Professor B2 is involved in the evaluation process for her discipline,
and had the chance to visit many campuses and learning from other
professors.

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The quotes in this text is from the MA Thesis "The Chinese National Top
Level Courses Project: Using Open Educational Resources to Promote
Quality in Undergraduate Teaching" by Stian Håklev, University of
Toronto 2010.

-   [Download the canonical PDF
  version](http://reganmian.net/top-level-courses/Haklev_Stian_201009_MA_thesis.pdf)
-   [Central page collecting all blog posts, many different download
  formats, and supplementary
  material](http://reganmian.net/top-level-courses)

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