Quality Matters Courses

Quality Matters (QM) is a faculty-centered, peer review process that is designed to certify the quality of online and blended courses.

QM is a leader in quality assurance for online education and has received national recognition for its peer-based, collegial, and collaborative approach to assuring continuous improvement in online education and student learning.

TCC has adopted some components of the Quality Matters professional development program as part of our training process for becoming certified to teach online.

While the Teaching Online Program (TOP) class focuses on the pedagogy of eLearning, Quality Matters is centered on design and development.

TCC has also adopted the Quality Matters Peer Review Process for implementation, and there are opportunities to prepare to become an official Master Reviewer for the College.

• Successful completion of the TOP course is a pre-requisite to enrollment in QM classes.

• There are two required courses and one optional course. Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) is taken first and is the pre-requisite to the Peer Reviewer Course (PRC). Improving Your Own Course (IYOC) is optional; however, it can become a requirement after a course has been peer reviewed as a means of improvement.

• QM courses are not free; however, the College will support one enrollment into each required and optional course. Subsequent attempts, if necessary, will require personal funding of approximately $300 per course.

• Each course is a 2-week, completely online course. There are no face-to-face or synchronous meetings required.

• QM courses are NOT self-paced; rather, they are facilitated by a QM instructor and are paced so that participants can expect to work through the materials over the designated time for the course.

• No workshop or certification course can or should be completed in one or two days. Participants should not expect to log in during the last few days of the session and complete it; for some courses this is impossible due to feedback turn-around times for sequenced assignments.

• Participants should expect to be active in these courses for the full time frame; those not completing course activities in a timely manner may not be able to complete the course to QM's expectations. Intellectual effort is expected on the part of all participants.

• Participants should expect to spend about 20 hours per week on each course.

• Certificates will be awarded by QM for successful completion of each course and are to be downloaded from the professional development site for personal use. TCC keeps documentation on file of all QM course completion.

Contact Deborah M. Edson, Interim Dean of eLearning, for more information about Quality Matters or to enroll in classes. All enrollments must be in dedicated TCC sessions and accomplished through Interim Dean Edson.