Quality Matters at TWU

Guest Blogger: Allison Peterson, MLS, Instructional Designer III - Denton Campus

So, you might be saying to yourself, “of course quality matters at TWU!” Texas Woman’s University has a long history of providing a quality education for its students. It is because of this tradition that the Office of Distance Education sought out a nationally recognized program to showcase and improve the quality of online and blended course design. At its heart, Quality Matters (QM), is a faculty-centered, peer review process designed to certify the quality of these courses.

QM began life as a FIPSE grant. You may read more about its origins at the QM website; http://www.qmprogram.org/ . Today, QM is a self-supporting organization, run on a subscriptions and fee-for-service model. TWU has been a subscribing member since March 2007. Through our subscription, we get access to QM materials and discounts on QM trainings and course reviews. To date, we have had 12 courses nationally recognized for meeting expectations of the QM rubric and process. You may find a list of these courses both on the QM website and our own TWU QM webpage; http://www.twu.edu/de/quality-matters.

Quality Matters is a voluntary program at TWU. All of the Distance Education Instructional Design team has been trained in the use of the QM rubric and regularly uses it as a basis for conversations on good online/blended course design. We like QM because it is centered on course design, not delivery. It is all about making your course easier for students to navigate and succeed in the tasks you set for them.

The first step to learning more about Quality Matters at TWU, is participating in the Applying the QM Rubric (APP) workshop. The APP is a two-week workshop, currently offered asynchronously online. It introduces participants to the Quality Matters program, process and rubric. Watch your email for registration information about upcoming workshops!