Conference Presentations

This session will take the format of a panel discussion framed by Gay's (2010) six attributes of culturally responsive teaching. The five-member panel will provide concrete examples of online instructional design and subsequent delivery practices that are reflective of Gay's six attributes of culturally responsive learning environments being validating, comprehensive, multi-dimensional, empowering, transformative, and emancipatory.

What does the term hybrid mean to you? Has it changed in the last year? We developed a new blended format that draws upon best practices for face-to-face, online, and the virtual classroom. Come join us to discover how Hybrid can be new for you too!

This presentation explores ways to develop an ecosystem that supports the teaching and learning process through support strategies needed to adapt and thrive. We can foster an environment of empowerment and support by embracing growth opportunities, offering tailored professional development, innovating pedagogical practices, and utilizing AI as a powerful ally for enhancing efficiency. This proactive approach ensures that transformative responses to new challenges become a lasting part of institutional culture.

Rethinking your multiple-choice exams? Tired of discussions that seem like busywork? This session will highlight assessment types, examples, and strategies, including designing authentic assessments and using LMS tools to support your assessment goals.

Due to the misfortune of the current pandemic, obtaining student engagement has become an extremely difficult endeavor. So how do we cope when our once effective delivery methods are no longer keeping our students engaged? Considering how the pedagogy relates to the student experience during this pandemic, is extremely important in the process of developing opportunities to transform passive encounters to active and meaningful experiences.

Typically, decisions guiding blended instruction were framed by considering what content could be moved online using well developed training and support tools.  However, the COVID-19 pandemic suddenly shifted everything online. Instead of substituting established online approaches, some faculty began “remote instruction,” holding hours-long, large scale, online synchronous classes.  This model met with mixed but mostly negative reactions from students.

Typically, decisions guiding blended instruction were framed by considering what content could be moved online using well developed training and support tools.  However, the COVID-19 pandemic suddenly shifted everything online. Instead of substituting established online approaches, some faculty began “remote instruction,” holding hours-long, large scale, online synchronous classes.  This model met with mixed but mostly negative reactions from students.

Imagine a serene, crystal-clear lake—its stillness reflecting the world around it, yet beneath the surface, it's teeming with life and renewal. Just like this lake, the NSQ Course Standards have long served as a mirror of effective digital learning, reflecting best practices in course design. However, to remain vibrant, even the most tranquil lakes benefit from fresh currents. By refreshing these standards, we invite educators to dive into new depths of course design, empowered to create learning experiences that are as refreshing and life-sustaining as a pristine body of water.

What is regular and substantive interaction, anyhow? The Department of Education doesn’t provide a clear answer, but it is an important compliance question. Specific Review Standard 5.2 discusses *opportunities* for learner-instructor interaction, but Indiana University wanted more. Recognizing that compliance is part of quality assurance, our academic leadership asked us to create a QM-style “interaction standard.”

In this presentation, we cover the following:

1. What is interaction?

The presenters, Denise Kreiger and Sharon Stoerger, School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University, discuss a newly designed course project where students construct digital stories about hashtag activism movements using the Storify technology tool. This project extends the large-lecture hall classroom through an "online component" in an LMS to create a substantial blended learning environment.

The presenters, Denise Kreiger and Sharon Stoerger, will discuss a newly designed course project where students construct digital stories about hashtag activism movements using the Storify technology tool. This project extends the large-lecture hall classroom through an "online component" in an LMS to create a substantial blended learning environment. It provides students with an engaging, inquiry-based authentic learning experience that integrates QM standards 2-6 and can be implemented in any delivery format: face-to-face/web-enhanced, hybrid/blended, or online courses.

Have you or your department been contemplating implementing a redesign process on your campus, but just don’t quite know where to start. In this session, we will share our approach, policy and lessons learned in implementing a redesign process for an accelerated online program. Participants will be able to takeaway ideas and strategies to implement their own redesign process to provide high quality courses within their institution.

Have you or your department been contemplating implementing a redesign process on your campus, but just don’t quite know where to start. In this session, we will share our approach, policy and lessons learned in implementing a redesign process for an accelerated online program. Participants will be able to takeaway ideas and strategies to implement their own redesign process to provide high quality courses within their institution. 

Interested in sharing your experiences with the digital teaching and learning approaches implemented over the past year in response to COVID? Join us to discuss successes, challenges, areas of growth, and approaches to transform distance education.

We're all about continuous improvement!  How can QM serve you more effectively?  QM Coordinators are invited to attend this interactive session to learn about and discuss new and planned enhancements to subscriber tools, processes and resources.  The session is an opportunity to share your ideas directly with QM leaders responsible for implementation.

When is a course “done”? Is it when you first hit publish, or when all of the standards have been met? This session will address how a course is never truly finished, but in a state of constant evolution toward the best possible version. We’ll talk about instructional and design challenges and enhancements faced along the way of creating a course using a truly collaborative process. Iterative improvement for the win!

We empirically examined the content of the peer review comments elicited in our first round of internal Quality Matters peer reviews. Comments were evaluated with three frames in mind: comparison to QM recommendations for effective comments, qualitative analysis of content, comparison to theory on feedback intervention effects on performance.

This research study represents a multiyear investigation into the development and evolution of Walsh University's first forensic science course, Introduction to Forensic Science (NS 114). From the initial planning and first offering to its current form, the course has undergone significant transformations to enhance student engagement, critical thinking, and application of forensic science concepts to real-world situations.

When the topic of QM Research is brought up, what comes to mind for many is research on the impact on courses, instructors, and students that results from implementing Quality Matters. Studies on QM impact are, in fact, one important focus of QM Research, with the others being research that supports the QM Rubric and process and research that examines the use of QM. A basis in regular, rigorous, continuous validation through research is what makes the QM Rubric unique.

The term 'diversity' encompasses differences of culture, background, and experience among individuals and groups. Such differences are evident in race, ethnicity, disabiities, national origin, languages, color, gender, social orieintation, age, veteran status, socioeconomic status, political, spiritual and philosophical faith or affiliation. Using this definition of diversity, we look within the context of an online course and ask the following questions: How does one begin to understand differences with the absence of social cues familiar to traditional classroom experience?