Conference Presentations

A professor and a consultant share their experiences of how several small, private colleges are using QM to build an online program from scratch—not only utilizing QM as a tool for evaluating online courses but as the framework to strategically plan the transition of courses from traditional on-ground to online.  Their process involves “The Four I’s”:  Infrastructure (technology capacity, talent and tools), Initiative (purpose), Implementation (faculty development, owner support) and Instruction (consistent, deliverable course material).

This presentation will review how we used findings from a qualitative study on perspectives of faculty and students in courses changed from QM training to guide future training. We will discuss the 22 participant study including data collection and analysis. A theme that emerged showed that both students and faculty found improvement in organization, instructions, and engagement in the courses changed by QM training. 

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.

Copresenters: Jason Skinner and Dr. Frances Mc Donald

Presenters will discuss and demonstrate implementation of QM Standards and best practices in online courses; describe efforts to educate faculty on the application of QM and best practices; and discuss efforts to train and encourage faculty to be Peer Reviewers.  We will also cover the challenges faced by a large community college in incorporating QM in its quality assurance process for delivery of online courses, and discuss the decisions encountered while implementing an internal QM-based peer review process.

Higher education institutions are increasingly susceptible to crisis events, as seen by the COVID-19 pandemic. Research shows institutions tend to be more reactive than proactive in crisis situations. However, using the Crisis Management Cycle can help institutions prepare for any crisis situation. This cycle consists of five phases: planning, prevention, response, recover, and learning. The planning phase consists of planning for possible crisis events and notifying staff of proper procedure. The next step is prevention, when institutions work to avoid crisis stimuli.

Learn how one K-12 district utilizes QM's CPE Standards as the basis for a certification course required of any staff wanting to develop and offer a fully online professional learning (PL) course. In other words, how do the CPE Standards help us "ride herd" on online PL course development and avoid the"'Wild West"?

Blending design with quality standards to offer online non-credit courses that enhance future and current student success.

A challenge that many online faculty face can be broken down into three areas: 1) they have never been online learners and cannot put themselves in the role of a student, 2) they have never taught online and/or 3) they are not comfortable using the tools within their Learning Management System (LMS). This presentation will review the yearlong process of researching and prototyping to develop two courses, consistent with the QM CPE rubric, that will help faculty succeed in the online environment.

When faced with the task of designing asynchronous courses for elementary school students, VirtualSC designers worked to merge best practices of instructional design with those used in designing apps for children. In this session, the team will demonstrate the resulting course elements and how they are being used in the development of elementary math and social studies courses.

The crowd-sourced site Wikipedia historically is disregarded by the academic community as unreliable. However, online college courses can help improve Wikipedia. This poster explains how journalism and mass communication courses taught online applied subject-matter concepts according to Quality Matters standards to edit Wikipedia articles. This approach can be used for any subject.

Do QM Standards contribute to boosting your confidence in teaching online? Participants can anticipate an engaging exploration of this question, coupled with the acquisition of a model illustrating how QM PD learner insights from surveys can function as a valuable tool for informing strategic decisions in QM learning experience design. Join us as we delve into the role and integration of QM training learner insights in shaping QM educational practices to bolster online teaching self-efficacy.

This session will show you how to create virtual reality content for your online courses. We will focus on the emerging best practices for creating and using immersive video to transport your students on a virtual field trip. The equipment to create immersive videos is easily accessible and the tools for your students to use the content are many. Learn how to create this type of video and experience it yourself.

Using principles from graphic design, UDL and QM Standard 8, best practices for using color, contrast, fonts, and text styles in online courses will be introduced. The psychology of color and font usage will be discussed. The benefits of visual best practices for accessibility and inclusion will be demonstrated. Activities will include analyzing colors and contrast, evaluating the layout of visual content on print and web pages, and examples of how visual elements are utilized by screen reading applications.

In this session, an Instructional Designer from Columbia University will lead discussion and activities on how designers and faculty might use visualization to make alignments more explicit within a course.

An online course is just a web page with information on a particular subject. NOT. An online course is a self-paced tutorial. NOT. Teaching online is the same as teaching in a face-2-face environment. NOT. We will share our keys to a successful Online Teaching Certification Course, including some conversations with instructors who are preparing to teach online, and tips from our seasoned instructors on their best practices for online teaching.

The Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Course Audit rubric was developed to identify areas of strength and areas of opportunity to create a more inclusive curriculum particularly for those from the historically marginalized communities we serve. In this presentation, we will discuss the application of the DEI Course Audit rubric to curriculum.

Have you ever wondered just how flexible you can be when you have specific standards to teach? Have you felt stuck in the rigidity of standards? If so, this session is for you. In this session, we’ll discuss how creating an alignment chart that maps out standards and learning objectives before creating instructional content and assessments will actually make personalizing content more manageable. Come discover the benefits of alignment and increase your flexibility as a designer and teacher.

We value your input! Come prepared to discuss the future of Quality Matters in Washington State. All Washington folks are invited to attend.