Conference Presentations

In this presentation, you will experience an online course from a learner's perspective. 
You will navigate through two courses and will be able to identify the features of an accessible course. 
Finally, you will participate in an activity that will reinforce the need for accessible courses.

Case studies encourage students to be active learners and critical thinkers. But in an online course, how can faculty ensure that students are ready to tackle a case, or move forward from one stage of a case to another? Expensive corporate training software can do this, but you don't need to spend money or time learning new technologies. Using the adaptive release settings in many LMSs, faculty can ensure learners have the support they need to work through a case, receiving appropriate feedback along the way.

Our university has approached accessibility as a something that should be part of the campus culture.  Quality Matter course reviews provide an opportunity to use Quality Matters Rubric Standard 8 as a means of solidifying the concept of accessibility being something that is part of the fabric of campus rather than something that only occurs when asked or required to do so.  The university began using Quality Matters course reviews approximately two years ago.

"Changing the Game" means interacting with students in an imitation of a hybrid format to enhance learning.  Using Adobe Connect sessions gives insight on common problems the professor has seen in past courses.  Rubrics are used to teach the students how they can directly affect their grade by checking for all requirements using the same "tool" the professor use to grade.  My courses start with a welcome video and Adobe Connect sessions for credit.  The Adobe Connect sessions feature talking points so that students get an interactive overview of the course purpose and st

Building buy-in from faculty during the course audit process is paramount for the successful improvement of an academic program. Traditional recommendations for successful audits include openness, with timely and relevant feedback, as well as clear expectations. An innovative, collaborative approach towards course auditing can incorporate these recommendations, and create an audit process that fosters success within an academic program. Using the acronym, BUY-IN, peer auditing practices can produce results that motivate and empower faculty to achieve QM Certification.

How can institutions leverage technology to incorporate instructional design principles in every course with limited resources? One solution: templates. By now, templates are very commonplace but are often misunderstood. Course templates offer a unique, flexible, and sustainable way to ensure quality while keeping options open. Smaller institutions with limited staff can leverage an online course template to provide a baseline standard and teachable moment. Let's remove the anxiety of a blank course shell and take a deep dive into building templates in Canvas using Design Tools.

Quality Matters certification ensures high standards for online courses.  However, what if the institution is unable to financially afford certification for all online courses?  This panel will share the story of how one college created an internal review process based on QM.

For leaders in online education, the word "design" has a new resonance.  It reflects the prominent role of instructional design in the structuring of the student learning experience.  It also signifies the responsibility of leaders to plan, implement, measure, and analyze.  To prepare new leaders, MarylandOnline (MOL) launched a Leadership Institute (MOLLI).  MOLLI's Director and planning council members will share lessons learned in MOLLI 2017 and plans for MOLLI 2018.

Alignment is critical from a Quality Matters standpoint and also essential for assessment purposes.  A sound course design begins with measurable outcomes and alignment of coherent activities to provide students with quality learning experiences.  This session concentrates on student success by combining QM and assessment topics as the facilitators discuss challenges, needs, and emerging solutions to engage graduate education students in their online discussion forums.  In this session, facilitators discuss research on online discussion forums and assessment

Over the past year, a faculty member and instructional designer at the Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, have been working together to incorporate more weekly multi-media into his courses. We worked on both faculty produced videos while collaborating with a video production specialist, and on student produced videos using the multi-media tool Practice (ApprenNet). This session will discuss our collaborative process and the successes and challenges we faced.

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. 

Wouldn't it be great to be a new college? Distance learning courses, proactively designed from scratch to meet accessibility standards, would eliminate terms like "legacy course" and "faculty buy-in".  Imagine a world where WCAG did not require a Google search on acronyms.

Sometimes it takes a village. In this interactive session, participants will start with developing the dream Course Team. Participants will then have to develop strategies to launch and reinforce quality assurance. Finally, participants will sample course data at-scale and identify potential points for investigation and course redesign.

Sometimes it takes a village. In this interactive session, participants will start with developing the dream Course Team. Participants will then have to develop strategies to launch and reinforce quality assurance. Finally, participants will sample course data at-scale and identify potential points for investigation and course redesign.

This session will explain the benefits and rationale from applying QM framework to a course template in an LMS to embedded intelligent course design across all course delivery formats. Models and visual examples of how templates and course shells (pre-designed before faculty are added to courses) align with several Specific Review Standards from the QM Rubric.

A team of five instructional designers at Michigan State University worked in pairs to review 27 courses in the Social Work Program during the span of a year. Come learn about our process for scaling a large program. Walk away with strategies, templates, and first steps to conduct a similar review at your institution.

Creating an online course is an art and the best faculty finely craft their courses for the greatest impact. With quality at the heart of that process, how does scale change design and delivery? Must engagement and innovation suffer in a course developed for several thousand learners or a proto/template course used by multiple sections? Does scale stifle the creative process or ultimately impact student success? Perspectives will be shared on scaling quality and approaches to program design, delivery, and pedagogy.

Built as an extension of the APPQMR, North Carolina Central University developed "You be the Reviewer: Quality Matters at NCCU" in response to an institutional need for continuous review of the Rubric Standards. This revolutionary, new text-based mobile game reinforces participants' understanding of best practices presented during the APPQMR. Join us during this highly engaging session which explores lessons learned in the development and implementation of our innovative mobile application, and extend the excitement sparked by the APPQMR throughout the course design process!

A STEM faculty learning community was created at North Carolina Central University to assess online science course offerings and instruction. Faculty completed the APPQMR course coupled with services from the Division of Extended Studies and implemented changes in their subsequent online courses. This presentation describes the impact of that training and application of Rubric Standards on the design and student outcomes for an Introductory Biology course over four terms, as published in the QM-focused 2017 edition of the American Journal of Distance Education.

Universal Design for Learning provides a blueprint for creating instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments that work for everyone, not a single one size fits all solution, but rather flexible approaches that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs (The National Center on Universal Design for Learning, 2012).   Session attendees will share processes for creating flexible classroom environments by incorporating the UDL Principles of Representation, Action and Expression, and Engagement.   Activities will include the development of flexible grading