Arizona State University is committed to implement the Quality Matters Standards for the design of online courses, and we are systematically building and evaluating our courses based on these rigorous, research-based standards. The Quality Matters Standards assure that the online components of these courses promote learner engagement and provide students with all the tools and information they need to be successful learners.
You can read more about the QA program including the program history, principles, rubric, course review process, professional development, and publication information at the official Quality Matters website.
The Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) workshop is QM’s flagship workshop on the QM Rubric and the process of using the QM Rubric to review online courses. It is intended for a broad audience, including but not limited to faculty, instructional designers, administrators, and adjunct instructors who wish to understand more about the QM Rubric and process of course review.
ASU offers workshops for the Quality Matters Program in both a face-to-face and online format at no cost to the participants. The face-to-face workshop is a full day (7.5 hours) presentation that is offered at the SkySong campus. The online workshop covers two weeks and participants can expect to spend about 10-11 hours per week in this workshop to successfully complete it.
These workshops are offered with an associated fee from Quality Matters. Your department is responsible for payment for any of these workshops or trainings.
Recording lecture videos can be a powerful way to share your knowledge and establish a rapport with your students. Unfortunately, these videos can pose challenges to students with certain disabilities if specific design considerations are not met.
Fortunately, by following a few simple techniques and strategies, you can create videos that will be accessible to the vast majority of your students. Continue reading
Imagine you’re an online instructor in the middle of a semester. Every week at the 11:58 pm deadline, students submit assignments that barely meet the rubric minimums. The discussion boards and virtual office hours are ghost towns, and you’re not convinced anyone is reading your feedback. What can you do to motivate your online students to engage with the content and go the extra mile with their assignments and studies? Turner and Paris (1995) identified 6 factors to consider in your own course design to improve student motivation: Choice, Constructing Meaning, Control, Challenge, Consequence, and Collaboration. Continue reading
…or “You can provide student feedback, but how do you know if it’s really ever read?”
Instructors strive to provide effective feedback in a timely manner to help their students learn and be successful. Logistically speaking grading especially in large enrollment classes, can become an especially arduous task. Frequently, TAs are employed as graders to help lighten the workload. While such a strategy may be necessary from a management standpoint, it does hinder instructors from making a closer connection to students and better identifying where students are having difficulty. However, no matter what the size of the class, there are strategies to help instructors to more easily manage the delivery of feedback to students. Continue reading
Should an instructor offer extra credit? There are many opinions regarding extra credit. Some education professionals hold the notion that giving extra credit is unfair and inflates grades. Others insist that students should earn their grades based only on expected work. The decision to offer extra credit can be difficult and ultimately comes down to the instructor’s personal education philosophy, the expectations set by the institution, and how the extra credit contributes to the value of the educational experience.
Designing a course for the online world can feel downright daunting. And sometimes daunting tasks can get, well, postponed. Adopt these tips for quick, quality course design to get that ball rolling. Tackle one tip a day and you’ll be closer to having a finished course, and soon!
