Quality Matters
One factor affecting course quality focused on the forethought and planning of an online course
What is course design?
Critical course elements work together to ensure learners achieve the desired learning outcomes
What is alignment?
A Start Here page, course tour, and syllabus quiz are examples of ways to help students on this day of class
What is the first day?
Learners engage by "doing" something, such as analyzing data, evaluating potential solutions to a problem, or applying concepts and information
What is active learning?
This principle helps us ensure courses are accessible and usable for diverse learners
What is Universal Design for Learning?
The actual teaching of the course and implementation of the course design, after learners login and begin to engage with the content, other learners, and the instructor
What is course delivery?
These help us articulate what we want our students to learn
What are Learning Objectives?
This document usually provides valuable information for the student on the first day, including the purpose and structure of the course
What is the syllabus?
A type of scoring guide that assesses and articulates specific components and expectations for an assignment
What is a rubric?
The concept that course content should be clearly presented and organized to make it easy to read and follow
What is readability?
The threshold of quality for meeting a QM standard
What is 85%?
Precise, clear, specific, observable
What are measurable objectives?
Technical support, accessibility services, and other academic support services and resources for students
What are learner support resources?
This should be stated clearly, be available at the beginning of the course, and remain consistent throughout the course site
What is the course grading policy?
Consistent, logical, efficient, and meaningful ways to progress through the course
What is navigation?
There are 22 of these in the QM Higher Education Rubric, 7th edition
What are Essential standards?
These measure the achievement of the learning objectives
What are assessments?
A wide range of digital resources, applications, and platforms that support and enhance teaching and learning
What are technology tools?
A plan for communicating with the students regularly throughout the course through announcements, email, online review sessions, and feedback
What is an instructor interaction plan?
Text formatted to be easy to read and understand for everyone, including people with disabilities
What is accessible text?
A faculty-driven continuous improvement process that is collaborative, collegial, and centered on national standards of best practice
What is QM Peer Review?
A visual representation of how the course learning objectives, learning materials, activities, and assessments align
What is a course map?
This team of GCSC staff is available to assist faculty with instructional design questions and tips for incorporating instructional technologies to increase student engagement
What is the Online Learning unit?
A requirement for distance education courses that refers to the frequency and quality of communication between instructors and students
What is regular and substantive interaction?
A tool that makes it easy to find and fix accessibility issues on pages and files within the Canvas course
What is UDOIT?