Conference Presentations

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?

The QM RubricTM was developed and continues to be informed by independent distance/online educational-focused research.  The QM Research Colleagues (QMRC) will lead the session by providing an overview of research literature that informs the QM standards.  After a brief introduction to the relationship of original research to the QM Rubric and a walkthrough of the QM research database, samples of research and talking points will be provided for each of the eight general standards.   

This session will focus on using research tools to collect data to support online learners. We will discuss our journey in re-developing an online learner readiness instrument at two universities. We will describe our collaborative research process and share the results of our validation study. Then we will discuss how the Learning Skills Journey Tool has been re-conceptualized to support undergraduate learners in self-assessment, connecting students with resources and support services, and helping student support coaches identify opportunities for students to develop learning skills.

All too often, online course quality is determined by a course’s compliance with industry standards rather than consultation with actual students. In this session, we will share how we used research-based methods to develop a Student Advisory Board for Instructional Technology, ensuring that student feedback is actively used in refining online course evaluation and improvement strategies.

Using QM Standards as a foundation, the Student Success Seminar (a required course for all freshmen) was redesigned to include more student interaction, engagement, individualization, choice, and support. We created an online shell that all courses, on and off campus, face-to-face or online, use so that sections being taught across the state would be consistent. We enlisted faculty and staff members, part-time instructors, community members, and students to help develop modular content and share their expertise.

How might we creatively use the QM Rubric to inform the design and/or review of our face-to-face courses? What are the barriers to using the Rubric in this manner? Could a new Rubric be developed that is specific to face-to-face course design?

Review Readiness: Establishing internal review processes to prepare for QM certification reviews is a session that shares one institution's strategy for structuring an internal review process that drives faculty buy-in and course certification.

Review Readiness: Establishing internal review processes to prepare for QM certification reviews is a session that shares one institution's strategy for structuring an internal review process that drives faculty buy-in and course certification.