Conference Presentations

search by keyword

Quality Matters and Continuous Academic Innovation

Radford University piloted an innovative retention program for high-achieving incoming freshman students during the Summer of 2014. Dubbed “Accelerate" the program moved from concept to launch, including the creation of a new semester and five compressed schedule courses, in less than 30 weeks.  This was largely possible due to a systematic program design and improvement process that utilized QM throughout.

Quality Matters at the Core: A Roadmap for Collaborative Online Course Development

This conversation provides a snapshot of how the Quality Matters Rubric provides a foundation for the development of high quality secondary education online courses. In support of this process, tools and strategies have been created to promote collaboration, team building and ongoing learning, while the district  implements Common Core State Standards instructional strategies.    Attendees will hear about challenges, lessons learned, and strategies from those involved in the development of these courses.

Research that Informs QM Standard 8

The term 'diversity' encompasses differences of culture, background, and experience among individuals and groups. Such differences are evident in race, ethnicity, disabiities, national origin, languages, color, gender, social orieintation, age, veteran status, socioeconomic status, political, spiritual and philosophical faith or affiliation. Using this definition of diversity, we look within the context of an online course and ask the following questions: How does one begin to understand differences with the absence of social cues familiar to traditional classroom experience?

Set Sail on a Three-Course Tour - Three Unique Examples of a QM Recognized Course

Three faculty from diverse institutions, Doña Anna Community College, New Mexico State University, and the University of New Mexico, take you through their courses and experiences as their fully online courses were reviewed by Quality Matters. Examples of best practices and strategies used successfully will be highlighted as well as common areas that were missed.

Presenters are Krista MacDonald, Sharon Lalla, Rebecca Adams

Seven Principles and Eight Standards: Alignment Toward Quality Online Instruction

In 1987, Chickering and Gamson published their seminal work "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education." Session participants will be introduced to the "seven principles" and will explore how they align with QM's eight General Standards. Breakout groups will brainstorm to create good practices and will share and discuss ideas. Individual participants will rank ideas that will be most useful for promoting quality instruction. After the session, presenters will compile this information and make available a "Top Ten" list for conference attendees.

The Student Voice: Inter-institutional Research on the impact of QM for Students

As part of QM's research agenda for 2014/2015, we want to encourage intra- and inter-institution research on how QM affects students.  This session will introduce two projects, with some preliminary data, that focus on student perceptions of their online learning experience. The basic research question: How does applying QM to a course affect students?

Project 1) Compare online courses that do, and do not, meet QM standards in terms of affect, self-efficacy, and quality of experience as evidenced in real-time student feedback during the course

Think Big: Leveraging Inter-institutional Collaboration to Promote Course Quality

The Minnesota Online Quality Initiative coordinates the Quality Matters implementation of a state-wide Quality Matters subscription involving 35 public higher education institutions.  This session will include discussion of challenges, successes and lessons learned. Our approach to implementation is designed to encourage successful, strategic collaboration among faculty from a wide variety of institutions to promote and celebrate quality.  We will discuss practical ideas and processes for building collaboration, communication, and support.  

Using Quality Matters to Design and Assess Online Courses...We've Got Buy In!

Presenters will discuss and demonstrate implementation of QM Standards and best practices in online courses; describe efforts to educate faculty on the application of QM and best practices; and discuss efforts to train and encourage faculty to be Peer Reviewers.  We will also cover the challenges faced by a large community college in incorporating QM in its quality assurance process for delivery of online courses, and discuss the decisions encountered while implementing an internal QM-based peer review process.

What we're learning from QM-focused research

As we enter the second decade of QM, it's time to pause and take a look at the findings revealed in studies focused on QM. QM's director of research and research colleagues will overview the findings of QM-focused research to date.  Categories will include: student satisfaction, student learning outcomes, impact on instructors, and impact at departmental/organizational levels. Types of methodologies most frequently used and lessons learned from those studies will be discussed.

What's my line again? How we used theater to support QM with instructional design consultants

After our multi-campus university system adopted QM, our instructional designers/technologists realized that a full-day workshop is a hard sell for many faculty. We wanted ways to introduce QM’s rubric to people who might be turned off by the major commitment of completing APPQMR. We used theatrical vignettes to do it.