After participating in rigorous peer reviews of their online and hybrid courses, five UMBC faculty have earned Quality Matters certification as part of the campus’ Quality Matters Impact (QMI) pilot. In partnership with the Provost’s Office, the QMI pilot launched in FA2021 as an extension of the award-winningPIVOT program to recognize exemplary course design. 

Faculty participants received feedback from certified Quality Matters peer reviewers at UMBC and other online learning experts in the QM community. The five courses include:

These courses are eligible to display the QM Certification Mark, an internationally recognized symbol of online and blended course design quality. The QM Certification Mark represents these instructors’ ongoing commitment to creating learning environments that provide students with a clear pathway to success. QM Certification is the result of the faculty’s dedication to continuous improvement. 

Promoting quality and lessons learned 

In the first GO Chat of 2022, scheduled for February 25 at 1 PM, Louise Murray and Mary Tabaa will share their experiences with the formal review process and showcase their QM-certified courses. 

The call for participation in the Quality Matters Impact program is open twice a year with reviews scheduled in fall/winter and spring/summer. Using the 6th edition of the QM Higher Education Rubric, a formal QM course review is designed to be a collegial process to provide helpful recommendations for continuous improvement and reinforce effective, research-based practices for online and hybrid course design. 

A QM Official review provides independent validation of quality, learner-focused course design. As of February 2022, only nine courses in the University System of Maryland are formally certified by Quality Matters, which is valid for five years. To maintain QM certification, and be listed on QM’s website, courses may be recertified for an additional three years or officially reviewed again. A course achieves QM Certification when it meets QM Rubric Standards at the 85% threshold or better and meets all Essential Standards.

DoIT’s Instructional Technology team manages the formal review process and facilitates the fully online, asynchronous Applying the Quality Matters Rubric workshop designed to help instructors prepare for a formal course review. When a course is deemed having met QM standards, the instructor is eligible to display the QM Certification Mark on the syllabus or within the course itself. QMI program participants receive a $1,000 professional development award for completing required activities and their course meeting QM standards.  

For more information about the Quality Matters Impact program, please contact the QM coordinators for UMBC:

Dr. Mariann Hawken

Director, Instructional Technology

mariannhawken@umbc.edu

Dr. Susan Biro

Manager, Online Learning

sbiro@umbc.edu

For the Spring 22 semester, DoIT's Analytics & Instructional Technology groups will continue to offer student success and learning analytics-related workshops for the UMBC community. 

All workshops will start at noon, and be available via video conference (virtual meeting URL to be announced on the day of the event). To register and view more information, check the links below:

"How Do UMBC Bb Course Designs Correlate to Final Grades?" (2/17, Noon). This workshop will demo a UMBC Tableau dashboard prototype recently featured in Blended Learning Research Perspectives.

"Introducing HelioCampus Playbooks for Retention Modeling" (2/25, Noon). In this session, DoIT's Robert Carpenter and Len Mancini will lead a demo & discussion about the importance of predictive scores for each student using a series of dashboards that describe the risks associated with a particular score and how the model comes to that decision.

"Do Students Carry 'Lessons Learned' From One Course to the Next?" (3/10, Noon). Chemistry Principal Lecturer Tara Carpenter will share preliminary results from her Spring 21 learning analytics "mini-grant." FYI: The Spring 22 call for proposals is due 5/27/22.

"Revisiting UMBC's 6-year Graduation Rate" (3/18, Noon). UMBC's Data Science team developed a predictive model to predict the likelihood a First Time Full Time Freshman would graduate in 6 years. In this session, DoIT's Robert Carpenter and Len Mancini will discuss how student predictions tend to change from semester 2 to semester 3, some of the observed trends from cohort to cohort and the implications of those trends.

"Nudging Students to Success" (4/22, Noon). In this analytics workshop, DoIT's Robert Carpenter and Len Mancini will break down the nudges sent to students by demographic group, college, and program, and show how student predictive scores change from week 4 to week 7. Moreover, we will talk about how the importance of engagement features increases as the semester progresses.

As an extension of the award-winningPIVOT program, the Quality Matters Impact program is a new initiative to formally recognize courses that meet Quality Matters standards and demonstrate exemplary online/hybrid course design. As part of this process, faculty participants will receive feedback from certified Quality Matters peer reviewers including UMBC faculty and staff and other online learning experts in the QM community.

A formal QM course review is designed to be a collegial process to provide helpful recommendations for continuous improvement and reinforce effective, research-based practices for online and hybrid course design. DoIT's Instructional Technology team will manage the review using QM's Higher Education Rubric, 6th Edition (pdf). When a course meets QM standards following a formal review, it is eligible to display the QM Certification Mark.

Selection Criteria: 

Participants selected for the Spring/Summer 2022 Quality Matters Impact cohort agree to submit a hybrid or online course for a formal Quality Matters course review.

Full or part-time faculty who meet the criteria and have not previously received funding through the Quality Matters Impact program are encouraged to apply by February 4, 2022. 

Recognizing that the QM Impact program does require an investment of time to participate, a $1000 professional development award will be provided to faculty by the Provost's office once a course meets QM standards.

Eligibility:

1. You must have taught your course as hybrid or online for at least two semesters at UMBC.

2. You should have some demonstrated proficiency with and consistent use of Blackboard by your:

1. Ability to demonstrate the skills in at least six of the eight Skill Builder themes for Blackboard in current/past classes.

2. Ranking in the top 50 percent of your discipline's Bb course activity during the current and previous academic years (to be determined by the Blackboard administrative staff and/or faculty using the “Blackboard Analytics for Learn” report in each course). 

3. Complete a complete QMI application by February 4, 2022.

PARTICIPATION REQUIREMENTS

Faculty accepted in the QMI Spring/Summer 2022 cohort agree to participate in the following activities during the spring 2022 semester:

• Attend 45-minute orientation session: Friday, February 4, 2022 at 12 PM or 2 PM (choose one)

• Complete the DoIT-facilitated Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) asynchronous workshop (2 weeks, fully online, February 15 - March 2)

• Complete a QM self-review of your course (recommended)

• Meet with your assigned review team for a pre-review conference call

• Implement recommendations to meet standards based on helpful recommendations from your assigned review team

• Respond to a QMI survey after the program concludes  

• Participate on a future panel or record a testimonial about your experience

SUPPORT

• A 2-week, asynchronous workshop, Applying the Quality Matters Workshop, will be held online from February 15 - March 2, 2022.

• Each participant will be assigned an Instructional Design Specialist to answer Quality Matters questions.

PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS

A proposal to participate in the Spring/Summer 2022 Quality Matters Impact cohort must include your course-level and unit-level objectives.

Ready to submit? Please complete the QMI application.

For more information about the Quality Matters Impact program, please contact the QM coordinators for UMBC:

Dr. Mariann Hawken

mariannhawken@umbc.edu

Dr. Susan Biro

sbiro@umbc.edu

As announced in Fall 2021, DoIT’s Audio-Visual and Desktop Support units have been busy upgrading classrooms and equipping instructors with new technologies to support hybrid and in-person instruction.

A limited number of classrooms have been converted to support lecture capture instruction, including cameras and microphones. For more information or to request a demonstration, please fill out this form.

To support lecture capture, AV Services can loan portable webcams, Jabra USB microphone/speakers, bluetooth headsets, and other mobile equipment.

AV has a variety of mobile carts specifically designed to support synchronous lecture capture (SLC). The intent of these carts is to provide a higher level of video and audio quality to an instructor's streaming application. 

If you plan to use any of these features in your classroom, DoIT strongly recommends you do so (on site) well in advance of your first class meeting. Please contact DoIT AV Services for a consultation. 

Finally, Events and Conference Servicesstaffhave added the following updates to the UC Ballroomas a hub for large-enrollment lecture courses:

• Installed a new laser projector and screen in the UC Ballroom.
• Installed new screens and projectors in breakout rooms UC302, 310, and 312.
• Greatlysimplified streaming content directly to the breakout rooms. Faculty can concentrate on their materials much as they would normally in any lecture hall. 
• Are providing on site training for faculty teaching in the UC on Jan 24 & 25 along with DoIT AV Services. Faculty should already have received their Calendar invitations.