Conference Presentations

Hear encouraging words from educators, get positive advice from national experts, gain proof of making a successful course! We share our approach to obtaining a Quality Matters first while improving engagement and usability for students.

This is a poster presentation.  

Is your curriculum team assessing potential new courses, authoring your own, or reviewing existing content for updates? Our Course Planning, Design, and Review Tool can help! WVS created this tool in Google Sheets to help initially vet a mix of vendor, national, and local content. Participants will be invited to share their experiences with online course quality evaluation (all stages of this journey welcome!) as well.

We'll share a large research university's journey to micro-credentialing. Quality assurance has been a catalyst for cross-departmental conversations and planning of bite-sized online learning modules, digital badges and co-curricular transcripts.

Wouldn’t you love students to follow your online course as closely as sports fans follow their favorite teams? Learn strategies and tools used by sportscasters that online instructors can use to increase student engagement.

Presentation site:  https://sites.google.com/site/qmexamplesplease/

How do we explain a "best case" example for 1.2? Or what if an instructor doesn't really know what we mean by standard 8.1, "Course navigation facilitates ease of use"? Consider how having a repository of examples might help faculty to better understand, reflect on, and implement QM standards? Join us as we look at how one was built and what we've learned while doing so.

SME Interviewing is a simple technique that supports the transformation of good course design to an exceptional one. Learn, practice, and apply this discovery-phase technique to achieve a memorable, meaningful impact for learners.

This presentation discusses phase 1 of a two-phase Mixed Methods research study focused on evaluating the effects of the APPQMR workshop.  Three variables were measured: 1) knowledge of best practice in online course design (KBP), 2) instructor perception of online course quality (IPQ), and 3) willingness to use the QM rubric to redesign an online course (W).  The dependent variable KBP was measured using a criterion-based instrument developed by the researcher, a certified Quality Matters peer reviewer and Instructional Design Specialist.

This session addresses the question: “What activities can learners engage in to improve distinct brain areas and processes?” Just like endurance, strength, and agility; your memory, perception, and cognition can be improved through exercise. Many of us are fascinated with puzzles such as Sudoku and crosswords. In addition to releasing dopamine, puzzles have been shown to improve specific areas of the brains. In this session, participants will solve different types of puzzles that stimulate distinct brain areas and processes in the broad areas of memory, perception, and cognition.

Most institutions have faculty who have been teaching online for decades as well as those just starting out. So how do do you ensure that everyone has a common vision for quality? St. Petersburg College expected more and attained more by making it a college priority:

 100% of faculty certified in the LMS

 100% of online/blended faculty certified in Teaching an Online Course

 100% of faculty developing courses certified in Applying the QM Rubric

With UConn's increase in hybrid/blended course offerings, faculty's related training and support requests, and research showing student performance gains in hybrid/blended learning environments, a two-week faculty development short course, Exploring Flexible Learning, was created. As an institution adopting Quality Matters, it was important that QM design Standards were met and modeled in the course, as well as applied by faculty participants. We'll share the design and outcomes of our pilot offering.

Continuous quality improvement requires change - and change is difficult. A transition team can thrive when it recognizes and addresses faculty fears. A faculty survey contrasted faculty perceptions before and after QM revision. Their concerns and assessments inform best practices.

Students often struggle to navigate the online learning environment, getting lost in their courses and becoming frustrated or discouraged. As a result of unclear expectations and navigation, engagement, grades, and retention can be adversely affected. In this session, we will share key takeaways from planning and executing "boot camp" style workshops at each of the five Alamo Colleges in San Antonio, Texas.

We will share our approach of integrating QM principles, peer review, and course creation into our Distance Learning Design Seminar and other faculty development workshops.  This provides a "Gateway" for quality, faculty-developed, student-centered courses.

This study contributes to a better understanding of instructors’ perceptions of equity issues within online teaching and learning. The researchers interviewed 21 instructors at one university across disciplines regarding their experience with and recommendations for attending to issues of inclusion, diversity, equity, and access (IDEA) in online teaching. Findings revealed that instructors characterized online teaching and IDEA issues as distinct skill sets and that they were not necessarily prepared to apply IDEA issues in online teaching.

Towson University's Gold Review Process enables faculty-centered, collaborative peer-reviews of online courses using a customized version of the QM Rubric. In this session, the Director of Distance Education and four faculty members (Family Studies, Health Professions, and Mathematics) who served as Reviewers will share (1) how the Gold Review Process has progressed since its inception in 2015, including plans to scale up in 2018; (2) reflections on becoming certified peer reviewers; and (3) reflections on serving as Gold Review Team members within our institution. 

GA Southern University launched a QM internal course review pilot in Spring 2015 consisting of 10 teams from 9 disciplines. After course reviews were completed, the teams were asked to write a reflection piece of their experience of the review process. They then shared their reflections with the campus during a poster session for a QM Course Review Showcase. This presentation analyzes those reflections and presents the themes that emerged.

Quality Matters (QM) standards aim to enhance student learning through the quality assurance of online courses. This study tries to answer the question whether faculty training on QM standards enhances online course design as perceived by students in terms of learning objective, instructional material, learner engagement, outcome assessment and course technology.

Do you still have faculty trying to teach online classes the same way they teach F2F classes? It is not the same! Training prior to teaching is imperative. How can it be accomplished? Expand the possibilities on your campus and hear how this small CC campus handles training with limited resources.

Are your learning objectives not quite feeling right? Perhaps you have some fake objectives? Or maybe the alignment is upside down?  Let us help you identify topics, assessments, activities, and instructional materials masquerading as objectives and evaluate upside-down alignment.