National Distance Learning Week is an annual effort to generate greater awareness and appreciation for distance learning, sponsored by the United States Distance Learning Association. Shoreline Community College is celebrating by posting a daily announcement that highlights an aspect of our eLearning program. Today we celebrate our faculty and their efforts to implement Quality Matters.

Judy Penn, SCC Biology Professor

Why Faculty Like Quality Matters

Shoreline faculty member Judy Penn is a supporter of Quality Matters (QM) as she is a certified Peer Reviewer and has had her two online courses, Biology 150 and Biology 126, both peer-reviewed and certified with the QM seal.

When asked about her experience with QM, Judy said, “The QM Review process has given me the opportunity to step back and approach my course from a student’s viewpoint.  As a result, all of my courses are easier for students to navigate, alignment of outcomes with activities is more obvious, I’ve streamlined my instructions, and a lot of unnecessary ‘clutter’ has been removed.”

Judy asked her students about their experience in her QM Certified courses and they were very positive with feedback such as:

• “I found it extremely easy to find what I needed to do, and to know when the due dates were.”
• “The course was very organized and instructions were easy to follow.”

What Students Want
These comments align with results from the annual Shoreline Online Student Satisfaction Survey. Online students uniformly request online classes that are organized, have a clear layout, and include clear instructions on how students should navigate the course:

• “Right in the beginning of the quarter, it’s nice for the professor to post a section on how they run their class. Each online class is a little different and to help smooth the beginning, a tutorial or page on how to use this course would be effective and useful!”
• “Just like with in-person classes, the teacher can structure classes almost anyway they choose but when that is done in an online class, it is felt way more. One of my online classes was …challenging and engaging and the structure was great and the expectations were clearly defined and understood.

The QM review focuses on the design of courses so students know what the expectations are and where to find course information. QM also emphasizes the alignment between Course Learning Outcomes, Weekly Learning Objectives, and assessments.

Currently, we have 18 courses that have earned the Quality Matters certification here at Shoreline and have several more being prepared for review during Winter Quarter.

Shoreline’s eLearning Faculty-in-Residence, Stephanie Diemel, is a certified QM Master Reviewer and has had her online Physics 110 course Quality Matters certified.  You can listen to her thoughts about QM by watching a short video here.

For more information, please contact eLearning Services by clicking here, sending an email to eLearning@shoreine.edu , or calling us at (206) 546-6966.