"You be the Reviewer: Quality Matters at NCCU," is a new text-based mobile game that reinforces participants' understanding of the APPQMR best practices. Learn about the development and implementation of our mobile application, and extend the fun of the APPQMR throughout the course design process!
Owing to the rapid influx in the development and instruction of online and hybrid courses throughout the virtual landscape of higher education, institutions are presently faced with the charge of offering rigorous, accessible, and engaging curricula designed to promote student success. Since ensuring course quality requires an intentional approach and does not manifest haphazardly, it is essential that institutions prepare faculty and course designers to create high-quality online and hybrid courses. Accepting this charge, institutions throughout the University of North Carolina System adopted the Quality Matters Program as a means to promote quality online course design and actively encourage faculty and course designers to complete the Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) workshop.
The APPQMR, a professional development workshop developed by the QM Program, provides participants an in-depth review of the eight QM Rubric General Standards that are informed by best-practice research in online and hybrid course design. This workshop can be delivered in a one-day, face-to-face session lasting 7.5 hours or can be taken online for the duration of two weeks. Due to its robust content, the APPQMR is a prerequisite for all QM roles and is an essential component of the quality assurance plans for online learning at many institutions of higher education.
As a subscribing member of the QM Program, North Carolina Central University (NCCU) began offering the APPQMR and immediately identified the need for continuous review of the Rubric Standards beyond the introductory workshop. Built as an extension of the APPQMR, NCCU developed "You be the Reviewer: Quality Matters at NCCU." This revolutionary, new text-based mobile game offered through NCCU's Office of e-Learning reinforces participants' understanding of the online and hybrid course design best practices introduced during the APPQMR through a flexible, mobile interface.
“You be the Reviewer: Quality Matters at NCCU” invites faculty to complete a set of 20 mini challenges over a game deployment of six weeks in which they make decisions in hypothetical situations based on their understanding of the QM Rubric. While engaged in the challenges, each faculty member assumes the role of a peer mentor to a variety of colleagues from a range of disciplines who seek advice regarding online and hybrid learning issues. Using their knowledge of the QM Rubric, faculty participants assist their “colleagues” in making the appropriate determinations for their courses.
In this highly engaging session, we will explore the benefits, challenges, and lessons learned in the exciting journey from the development of this innovative mobile application through its implementation with NCCU's pilot faculty cohort. Specifically, this session will identify the motivations that led to the development of the APPQMR review mobile application and detail the steps involved in the creation of this technology. Furthermore, participants will actively play through of one of the application’s challenges and hear first-hand testimonials of the game’s impact on instructors’ approaches to online course design from members of our pilot cohort. So join NCCU’s Office of e-Learning as we share strategies for weaving the Quality Matters Rubric into your institution's course design standards and demonstrate how to extend the excitement sparked by the APPQMR throughout the entire course design process.