2015 Annual Conference

Keep Up With Emerging Technologies: Become a MERLOT Peer Reviewer

Learn more about MERLOT's peer review process. Become a part of a professional development community that will support teaching and learning and increase knowledge of new technology in education. Learning Objectives Make participants aware of the opportunities to become peer reviewers for MERLOT. Provide an opportunity for examining new technologies as they emerge. Become a part of a professional learning network of educators around the world.

Spicing It Up! Quality Course Design for the Digital Age

Are you interested in "new" ways to boost learner engagement in your course? Do you wish you could enhance your course activities but aren't sure where to start? Do you want to create a course that is easy to maintain, AND meets QM Standards? Then this session is for you! Come explore ways to "spice up" your course by incorporating web-based activities. OERs, virtual projects and more while keeping in mind the all-important concept of alignment. These "hot tips" will get you on your way to promoting learner interaction in your courses!

"I Think I Can" - Observations from the Road to Lake Wobegon

Psychology research has shown that people often think of themselves as "above average." This presentation highlights data collected from faculty at 34 institutions suggesting this "above-average effect" applies to how people rate their course design skills. In a comparison between self-rated design skills and course review outcomes, the survey data find over-confidence in course design abilities. This presentation includes recommendations for how QM training can help instructors better self-assess their own abilities to create a well-designed course.

Quantifying how Quality Matters - Calculating the Return on Investment

From a case study developed for a large R1 institution, the researcher offers a methodology for making the case to fund QM as an institutional effectiveness program to increase completion and spur innovation in teaching and learning. This poster will showcase a return on investment (RoI) tool for calculating 10-year revenue impact, allocating program revenue, and analyzing the redistribution of funds to support program start-up and expansion. Participants will leave with an online toolkit for use in adapting the working documents to their own organizational attributes. (PCs - Recommended)

Spicing It Up! Quality Course Design for the Digital Age

Are you interested in "new" ways to boost learner engagement in your course? Do you wish you could enhance your course activities but aren't sure where to start? Do you want to create a course that is easy to maintain, AND meets QM Standards? Then this session is for you! Come explore ways to "spice up" your course by incorporating web-based activities. OERs, virtual projects and more while keeping in mind the all-important concept of alignment. These "hot tips" will get you on your way to promoting learner interaction in your courses!

Analytics as Reflective Practice in Online Teaching and Learning

Extensive educational data are available for examination through learning analytics. The paper on which this presentation is based applies learning analytics in the assessment of distance education, exploring opportunities for change at individual and programmatic levels. Analysis targets learner engagement, group processes, course tools, and online contexts, such as those described by Quality Matters Standards.

Intersection of ACOTE Accreditation Standards and Quality Matters Rubric Standards for Best Practice in Distance Education

The discussion examines the intersection of exemplar accreditation standards from the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education of the American Occupational Therapy Association and Quality Matters Rubric Standards for best practice in distance education for occupational therapy practitioners. The comparison suggests opportunities for dialog between the organizations. The author recommends research and collaboration between accreditation agencies and institutes of higher education to modify standards related to distance education.

Put on Your Cultural Glasses and Jump! Transforming Regular Assignments into Active Learning Experience

Active learning research demonstrated that by adding student agency, peer review and reflection, collaboration and cultural awareness, students learning is greatly enhanced in terms of motivation, engagement and learning outcome. Adjusting the assignment to be culturally responsive is like putting on a pair of cultural glasses, and adding agency, reflection and collaboration to the assignment is like taking 3 jumps in the transforming process.

Establishing a Summer Institute: Developing and Designing with the Online Course Improvement Program

This presentation will describe how Quality Matters is being used as the framework for an online course improvement summer institute. You will hear from the institute organizers and faculty who have completed the program concerning best practices in online course design, as well as how QM was implemented in the curriculum of the institute. The three-week process found participants designing or revising their online or blended courses in preparation for an informal Quality Matters course review.