2018 Mountain Regional Conference

In this session we will be discussing the benefit to utilizing a landing/homepage within an online course and how it aligns with Quality Matters. 

The 23-campus California State University QA program has progressively built a culture of quality and evidence for effective online-blended courses since 2011. This session will demonstrate how we evolved to go beyond professional development activities, to implementing a four-stage course certification process, disseminating certified course exemplars, and analyzing results of our student impact research efforts. Multiple opportunities for discussion-engagement and resources will be made available.

The 23-campus California State University Quality Assurance program has progressively built a culture of quality and evidence for effective online-blended courses since 2011. This session will demonstrate how we evolved to go beyond professional development activities, to implementing a four-stage course certification process, disseminating certified course exemplars, and analyzing results of our student impact research efforts. Multiple opportunities for discussion-engagement and resources will be made available.

This session describes the unique partnership of a college faculty member and a high school teacher as they gain expertise with the QM Rubric and peer review process before leading a statewide effort to create and certify a hybrid high school English course that will likely reach thousands of high school students across the state of California, and beyond.

The amount of research on online learning and quality assurance accumulates faster than anyone can keep up with it. In this session, attendees will get a summary of recent research findings on some of today's hot topics related to online learning and quality assurance that will let them see beyond the buzz to what has been found via research - and what has not - in order to put their own online learning and quality assurance agendas and efforts into practice.

This session will look at how a department is moving forward in developing quality online courses through a scaffolded process including an informal peer review process at the department level. Performing an informal peer review will allow the Course Representative the ability to go back and make substantive changes using the feedback given. This process not only helps facilitate better outcomes when the course is submitted for QM certification but also promotes common discussion around online course quality and builds collegiality.

In a world in which technology is increasingly ubiquitous, artists continue to struggle to find a sense of purpose, community, and humanistic value in digitally augmented spaces. We were placed in the rare position of having a choreographer and photographer seek our online learning team to translate their in-person workshops into blended learning environments. Through the lens of the QM framework, we were able to leverage multimedia, virtual conferencing, and project-based learning in an online environment to enhance face-to-face coursework.

How can you meet the needs of undergrad and graduate students? What about students taking 1 credit vs. 6 credits? What if they come from five different colleges? What if they are all working on different projects throughout the course? These are the challenges we faced as we designed a way to meet all of those needs in an online course that will need to scale to over 4,000 students.

The Summer 2017 Accreditation Task Force Committee from a Midwestern Kansas nursing program will share how they; while in preparation for an upcoming accreditation review visit;  utilized standards from the Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric to recommend standardization and improvement of syllabi throughout their program to improve student experience and course navigation.

This session will demonstrate how a well-designed on-line course can enable professors to use unique, low stakes, write-to-learn assignments to (1) improve engagement and student persistence, (2) help students develop an effective learning, researching, or writing process (3) help instructors to improve their understanding of their student's capabilities and points of confusion and (4) improve the social presence of students in their online courses.