What are the policies and expectations for QM online workshops?

Academic Integrity

Plagiarism, falsification, misrepresentation, or any other kind of academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. Plagiarism includes posting others' ideas as one's own and copying and pasting verbiage from QM materials or lessons without citing the source. All work should be that of the participant. Evidence of plagiarism will result in serious consequences, up to and including being expelled from the workshop and barred from holding QM roles.

Quality Matters encourages collaboration, but if you discuss activities with colleagues, you must still each submit your own original work.

Access to Workshop

Participants will have access to the workshop for seven days after the workshop ends. Once the seven-day window has elapsed, QM will not re-open the workshop or course, so be sure to save/download any resources you want from the site.

Accessibility

Participants who require accommodations should contact their institution's disability services or accessibility office and Quality Matters at least two weeks before the start of their session to request an accommodation.

Quality Matters supports the provisions of General Standard 8, Accessibility and Usability, in the QM Rubric. QM strongly supports reasonable accommodation for all participants.

All QM courses are offered in Canvas. Canvas complies with all major international standards in the area of accessibility, including XHTML Strict 1.0. For more information on Canvas and its development, please visit the Canvas Accessibility webpage.

QM's workshops include:

  • ALT tags that contain appropriate information about the graphic or activity
  • Appropriate color combinations that minimize color blindness effects.
  • Appropriate font and font-size combinations to improve readability.
  • Links to descriptions of accommodation features for the learning management system (Canvas) and any additional third-party tools, e.g., CourseArc.
  • Minimal use of bullets and/or charts that may confuse participants who use electronic readers.
  • Transcripts for audio clips.
  • Closed captions for videos.

The above features demonstrate QM's understanding of the importance of providing a learning environment that supports all participants.

Canvas maintains a list of officially supported screen reader/browser configurations. Participants who experience issues using a screen reader with Canvas should first verify they are using a supported configuration. Participants who are not using a supported configuration or who experience issues even when using a supported configuration are encouraged to try a different configuration or contact their institution’s office of accessibility and/or the vendor of the screen reader product they are using for support.

Disclaimer: Meeting QM Specific Review Standards regarding accessibility does not guarantee or imply that the specific accessibility regulations of any country are met. Please consult with an accessibility specialist at your institution to ensure that accessibility regulations are met.

Communication

Participants

Workshop participants are expected to:

  • Post any questions or concerns about the content and/or requirements to the Q&A Discussion, so everyone can access the information.
  • Send requests of a more personal nature directly to the Facilitator.
  • Request a real-time conversation with the Facilitator if you have questions regarding the feedback you received on an assignment or activity. 
  • Use the Help link in Canvas to get technical help. QM Facilitators are not expected to resolve technical issues.

Facilitator Feedback

Workshop Facilitators are expected to:

  • Make every effort to communicate frequently with participants through announcements and other discussion posts.
  • Reply to posts and provide feedback on assignments within 24-48 hours after the suggested due date (24 hours for one-week TOC workshops). Participants who work ahead should be aware that Facilitators are grading according to the schedule and may have to wait longer so the Facilitator can concentrate on the current work that is due.
  • Post an announcement if they will be unavailable for more than one day.
  • Answer Q&A Discussion questions within 24 hours.

Completion

Quality Matters does not offer letter grades. Participants either successfully complete or do not successfully complete a workshop. To successfully complete a workshop, you must successfully complete all activities in the workshop at the 85% level. Participants who successfully complete a workshop and complete the evaluation will have access to a Certificate of Completion.

Most QM workshops have two firm due dates. 

  1. The first firm due date falls at the halfway point of the workshop, and all initial submissions for assignments up to this point must be submitted by this date. The workshop “Schedule and Checklist” indicates when this first firm due date is in your session. 
  2. The second firm due date is the last day of the session, and all initial submissions for assignments due during this period must be submitted by midnight in your local time zone. 

Participants who wait until the last day or two of the workshop to submit most of the workshop assignments due in the second half of the workshop will find it difficult to succeed. Participants should make every effort to meet the due dates suggested for individual assignments on the Schedule and Checklist provided for the workshop and must meet the firm due dates to continue in the workshop and be marked complete. Participants who do not meet the firm due dates will not be marked complete for the session but may enroll in a future session. Another registration fee will be charged.

Facilitators will email you your completion status at the end of the workshop.

Grading

To succeed in this workshop, you must complete the required assignments based on QM’s 85% standard at a Met level. QM Facilitators do not use a point tally to determine whether or not a participant has been successful.

Some assignments or assessments are reported in points (quizzes, for example), but the final determination is whether the points indicate the assignment was Met. The instructions for individual assignments and quizzes give the information on how many points are needed to earn a Met rating.

You can use the Grades features to keep track of your progress. The link to your grades is in the main navigation menu.

You can also use the “Schedule and Checklist” as a to-do list and to track your progress.

And, of course, if you have any questions about your progress in your workshop, please contact your Facilitator.

See also Late Work and Revisions.

Language

Quality Matters professional development will be conducted in English. Participants must complete all coursework (assignments, discussions, quizzes, etc.) in English and are expected to communicate with the facilitator in English.

Late Work

QM defines late work as any initial work submitted after a firm due date in the workshop. Adequate time is allotted in the workshop schedule for all work to be completed within the time frame of the workshop state and end dates. Following the provided schedule is the best way to ensure you do not have late work. Please do not wait until the last minute to get started in the workshop and request an extension.

QM Facilitators provide extensions to a firm due date in workshops at their sole discretion.

No new work will be accepted after the workshop end date. However, revisions will be accepted within 48 hours after grading. Participants are responsible for monitoring their progress in the workshop and ensuring they have earned the required score for each assignment.

See also Completion and Revisions.

Netiquette

Netiquette, or Internet etiquette, are guidelines for maintaining civilized, professional, and effective communication in the online environment and email exchanges. Facilitators and participants will demonstrate appropriate netiquette when interacting with each other. Written communication will be conducted using standard business English. Here are some basic guidelines:

  • Keep your questions and comments relevant to the discussion topic. If another participant posts an off-topic comment or question, do not reply. The Facilitator will reply in private to the participant.
  • Treat the other participants in the discussion politely and respectfully.
  • Model the same standards of behavior online you would follow in a face-to-face discussion.
  • Do not use ALL CAPS when posting, as this is "shouting."
  • Do not "flame" others in discussions. Flaming is the "act of responding in a highly critical, sarcastic, or ridiculing manner."

Quality Matters reserves the right to remove posts that are not collegial or constructive and/or do not meet netiquette guidelines. Participants who do not exhibit collegial communication will not be allowed to complete the workshop.

Participation

Participants who actively participate in the workshop throughout the entire workshop get the most out of the experience. Therefore, workshop participants are expected to:

  • Log in to the workshop at least 5 times per week.
  • Read all required materials (unless indicated otherwise, all materials are required).
  • Complete all required activities (unless indicated otherwise, all activities are required).
  • Follow the posted discussion rubric.
  • Reply to at least one other participant in each of the required discussions (unless indicated otherwise, replying to at least one other participant is required in all discussions).
  • Revisit the discussions until the end date of the workshop to read new posts and answer any questions asked of you.

Revisions

In most cases, participants will not have more than two opportunities to successfully complete an assignment - one original submission and one revision.

If a revision is required, participants have 48 hours (24 hours in one-week TOC workshops) to return the revised assignment to the Facilitator for re-evaluation. The 48-hour time frame (24 hours in one-week TOC workshops) does not mean your submission has to be submitted exactly within 48 hours. Facilitators typically allow participants until midnight at their local time. All revisions should be submitted through Canvas discussions, quizzes, or the assignment submission page, not via email.

See also Completion and Late Work.

Time Commitment

QM expects participants to invest a significant amount of time in completing their workshop. Each module in the workshop includes an estimate of the time it will take to complete. These estimates are intended to give participants an idea of approximately how long a module will take so they can budget their time accordingly. All modules may be completed in multiple sittings. For example, if the estimated time for a module is three hours, you can split these hours up in any way that works for your schedule.

The times included for each module are estimates only and will vary based on each participant’s experience with QM, the QM learning management system, etc. The Schedule and Checklist indicates the approximate amount of time per module participants should expect to spend on the workshop; consider this the minimum amount of time you should expect to spend and if revisions are needed the time will increase as that time is not included in the estimate.

Review the "How can I be successful in completing QM professional development?" FAQ page for more information on getting the most out of QM professional development.