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Overview
Note: QM recommends that online and hybrid courses undergo review only after they have been taught at least once, if not twice, by the instructor. Learn more about the QM review process
Interested in having your online or hybrid course reviewed by Quality Matters? Our Quality Matters Program provides structured support through the preparation and review process. Follow the steps below to help ensure the process goes smoothly. If you have any questions while working through this process, do not hesitate to contact the Quality Matters Coordinator, Michael Manderfeld, or Emily Stark, a Quality Matters faculty liaison for MSU.
The process is designed to be supportive and collegial, allowing you to know that your course is designed to help ensure student success. It is also completely voluntary. The people reviewing your course will not only have experience in online teaching but are certified QM Peer Reviewers as well. They can provide you with useful ideas for improving your course design.
Get Your Course Reviewed
Step 1: Investigate options for payment for the review—contact the Quality Matters Coordinator, Michael Manderfeld, for current opportunities and suggestions for payment.
Step 2: Complete the QM Course Certification Application form
Note: to successfully complete the application, and work towards QM certification, you will need to illustrate the alignment mapping of your course design.
Step 3: Create a MYQM account and begin a Self Review of your course using the Quality Matters rubric (if you need an additional copy of the rubric, contact Michael Manderfeld). Pay particular attention to General Standard 2, and Standards 3.1, 4.1, 5.1, 6.1, 7.2, and 8.2. These focus on the importance of having measurable learning objectives for your course, and that your assessments, course activities, and instructional materials and tools all work together to help ensure achievement of the learning objectives and the accessibility of the course. Make sure that your course objectives, as well as your specific unit/module objectives, are clearly stated within the course. Learn more about Quality Matters
Step 4: For the review, you will need to have your course set up in D2L as a demo course, so that all student information from previous semesters is removed, but the content, discussion prompts, quizzes, news posts, surveys, and/or any other tools that you are using are available for reviewers to see. Work with the Quality Matters Coordinator to set up a separate course for you in D2L, move the information from a previous version of the course and provide a login, user name, and password for the Quality Matters review team to use. If you do not use D2L, then ensure that any identifying information of students is removed and that reviewers will be able to log in to your course as students.
Step 5: Contact Michael Manderfeld for a brief and informal feedback on your self-review of your course. This way, you have an opportunity to make modifications before the formal review begins, which helps to ensure that the review will be a smooth process.
Step 6: Once your course is ready and you are comfortable with your revisions, work with Michael Manderfeld to submit a Course Review Application. You will be contacted once all the paperwork is processed and the review has been scheduled.
Step 7: The review will be ready to begin! At the start of the review, you will participate in a conference call with the review team. This is an opportunity for you to be able to meet everyone and answer any questions that they have after looking at your Course Worksheet, as well as discuss the timeline for the review, feedback, and how long you will have to make any revisions, if necessary. During the review, the Master Reviewer will contact you if any questions come up.