Spotlight on Teaching

Quality Matters initiative for online courses applauds Dewhirst, Bansal, Ortiz

Three popular UWGB courses have been awarded “Quality Matters” certification for the high quality of their course design. They are:

 

Popular Music Since 1955

Professor Michelle McQuade Dewhirst - Music

 

 

Business Statistics

Professor Gaurav Bansal - Business Administration

 

 

Perspectives on Values: The Contemporary World

Professor Cristina Ortiz - Humanistic Studies

Michelle McQuade Dewhirst, Gaurav Bansal and Christina Ortiz were participants in the Advanced Online Teaching Fellows, a program offered to experienced online faculty seeking to elevate their online teaching and course design. Facilitated by the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL) the program will be offered again in Summer 2013 with the aim of gaining QM recognition for an additional ten online courses.

The Quality Matters Program is a national, faculty-driven, peer review process designed to certify the quality of online courses. The QM rubric provides a set of standards for the design of online courses at the college level and looks for classes with quality objectives, materials and assessments that support and engage students with accessible technology.

Professor Aeron Haynie, Director of CATL, said of the recognition, “We are very pleased with this recognition of our faculty’s strong work providing high quality online teaching. Congratulations to Michelle, Gaurav and Cristina! Expect many more announcements as our faculty complete the review process.”

Expanding the team of Quality Matters reviewers

Additionally, the campus has begun to expand our team of QM trained reviewers. These include three new Master Reviewers – Heather Pokorsky, Dan Schrickel, and Pat Theyerl – and two Peer Reviewers  — Profs. Angela Bauer-Dantoin and Gaurav Bansal. Becoming a reviewer requires a solid understanding of online course design and 20-30 hours of training. For more information on the Online Teaching Fellows program, visit the CATL website at http://www.uwgb.edu/catl/scholars/online.asp