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Maintain Your Reviewer Role
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Don’t let your team’s QM reviewer roles expire — complete the Rubric Update session by Jan. 5, 2024.
This FREE, self-paced session will help you and your colleagues get up to speed on all the important changes and updates in the QM Higher Education Rubric, Seventh Edition and how they will impact your work in reviewing courses. These include a deeper focus on accessibility, new annotations for synchronous online courses, an emphasis on inclusion and belonging, and more. The session takes approximately 6-8 hours to complete and is open to all QM members.
All QM-Certified Peer Reviewers must complete this session by Jan. 5 or their role(s) will be set to “expired” on Jan. 8 and they will need to complete the Rubric Update Role Reinstatement (RURR) session for a fee ($55) in order to have the role reinstated.
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Help Your Staff Take the First Step Toward Quality
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Download and share the Bridge to Quality: QM Online Course Design Guide — now updated for the QM Higher Education Rubric, Seventh Edition.
The Bridge to Quality is a FREE, community-inspired resource for faculty and course designers who want to create learner-centered courses using best practices. It’s designed to help faculty understand the foundations of quality and begin to engage with the hands-on work of quality assurance. Share it with your team to get them started down the path of continuous improvement!
Looking for more resources to help you meet the updated standards in the Seventh Edition? Try QM’s new workshop, Creating Course Alignment Maps. Explore the concept and elements of alignment through the Specific Review Standards that address them in the QM Higher Education Rubric. Then, create your own alignment map for one of your courses that can be used to identify gaps and strengthen alignment.
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Share Your Quality Achievements
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Since joining QM in 2011, more than 325 of Texas A&M International University (TAMIU)’s courses have achieved QM certification, and 96% of its faculty have taken QM professional development. As a result of this commitment to quality, TAMIU has seen evidence of increased engagement and satisfaction among students enrolled in online courses.
The CHLOE 8 report highlighted “quiet quality” — or the tendency of institutions to fail to publicize their quality assurance work — as a potential factor for flagging enrollment in higher education. Conversely, enrollment at TAMIU has increased from 142 full-time online students in Fall 2005 to 1,815 in Fall 2022 — an increase of nearly 1300%. At least in part, TAMIU credits this surge in enrollment to its dedication to publicizing its quality assurance practices. Here are three tips, inspired by TAMIU, for sharing your quality achievements to leverage them for enrollment:
- Create a website to showcase your QA efforts: TAMIU created a dedicated website to provide in-depth information about its work in quality assurance. The website serves dual purposes, showcasing the institution’s achievements while acting as a hub for faculty as they participate in TAMIU’s QA initiatives.
- Share your work on campus: The institution hung banners around its campus with information about its QM-certified courses, keeping students, visitors and others informed about its quality assurance priorities.
- Let the world know via social media: Each time a TAMIU course receives QM certification, the institution makes a social media post, congratulating the instructor. This practice improves faculty morale, encourages participation in QM reviews, and makes sure the public is aware of TAMIU’s commitment to quality.
TAMIU’s hard work sets a great example of how to use quality to achieve goals at all levels of your institutional landscape. Need help with making others more aware of your QA efforts? Get in touch with QM Member Services.
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Does Your Grading Serve Your Learners?
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The end of the year is a good time to take stock of how your grading system works — and whether it’s serving your learners. Here are a few questions to ask yourself as you evaluate how you grade in your courses:
- Is your system clear and easy to understand? Do impartial friends/colleagues agree?
- Do you use points and percentages? If points are used, are point values provided for all of the assignments and activities?
- Are there opportunities to drop the lowest grade?
- Are some assignments required but not graded?
- Are you using an approach that allows for narrative feedback instead of grades? If so, ensure that this is explained.
Take a scan of your course with an eye toward ensuring your grading policy is clear and consistent across your course. You’ll have fewer questions and your learners will be more confident they understand how each assignment counts toward their grade.
For more information, see QM Specific Review Standard 3.2, which addresses how to communicate the course grading policy in a clear and easy-to-understand way, no matter how you grade.
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Please join us in congratulating the following Higher Education, Publisher and Continuing & Professional Education members for having one or more courses recently QM-Certified.
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- Austin Community College District
- Austin Peay State University
- California State University-East Bay
- California State University-Fullerton
- California State University-Los Angeles
- Cameron University
- Clemson University College of Education
- Cleveland Community College
- Delaware County Community College
- East Carolina University
- East Central University
- Florida Atlantic University
- Florida International University
- Florida SouthWestern State College
- Florida State College at Jacksonville
- Frederick Community College
- Galen College of Nursing-Louisville
- Gardner-Webb University
- Hagerstown Community College
- Harford Community College
- Howard University
- Kent State University System
- New Mexico State University-Alamogordo
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- North Park University
- Oregon Health & Science University
- Rogers State University
- San Antonio College
- Southern Arkansas University Tech
- Southern California University of Health Sciences
- The University of Alabama
- The University of Texas at Arlington
- Tidewater Community College
- Universidad del Desarrollo
- University of Alabama at Birmingham
- University of Cincinnati
- University of Kentucky
- University of Louisiana at Lafayette
- University of North Carolina Wilmington
- University of North Florida
- University of Rochester
- University of South Carolina-Upstate
- University of Southern Indiana
- University of Toledo
- University of Wisconsin-Parkside
- Region 7 ESC
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- Shorter College
- Kuwait University
- Benedictine University
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