Quality Matters Impact Program - Call to Participate

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