This session will examine how NCCU employs Quality Matters to fulfill its University Strategic Plan, Academic Affairs Strategic Plan, UNC System expectations, and SACSCOC accreditation Standards. Participants will explore efforts of the STEM faction of an online learning community initiative and the institutional implications that resulted from its undertaking.
The demand for education beyond the confines of the brick-and-mortar campus has steadily increased for the general worker and the ever-growing, diverse population of nontraditional students. Online delivery of degree-related instruction is growing as the University responds to rising demands for educational access. To meet the demands of this steadily increasing population of learners, institutions must consider effective ways of intentional shifting their cultures to seamlessly integrate the needs of online learners into their institutional policies and practices.
In response to this charge, North Carolina Central University (NCCU) has intentionally and explicitly interwoven quality into its institutional framework through its 10-year affiliation with the Quality Matters Program. Quality Matters is an international quality assurance process developed to certify the design of online and blended courses. NCCU has opted to thoroughly integrate Quality Matters into its online instructional efforts due to the Quality Matters Program’s intentional focus on the concepts of student learning and online course design that contribute to positive learning experiences for all students. This session will examine how NCCU employs the QM Rubric as a mechanism for fulfilling its University Strategic Plan (Objective 1.5), Academic Affairs Strategic Plan (Objective 2.4), and the expectations of the University of North Carolina System. Furthermore, participants will delve into how NCCU utilizes the QM Rubric and associated professional development to satisfy and exceed the requirements for faculty development (Standard 6.5) and academic governance (Standard 10.4) in distance and correspondence education as prescribed by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.
Whereas student success is paramount, the professional preparation of faculty members to effectively communicate and transfer information to students is also essential. This becomes especially important as institutions like NCCU place more emphasis on online course delivery as a means to accommodate increasing course enrollment in the face of constraints on physical infrastructure. NCCU has recognized the need to address the growing number of nontraditional students matriculating in online courses and has expanded its infrastructure in the area of online education. Therefore, to further this work and provide a model for institutional QM implementation, a two-person team of faculty and administrators, as a part of an innovation initiative funded by the NCCU Academic Affairs Unit, led a faculty learning community in partnership with the Division of Extended Studies beginning in 2017 to assess multi-disciplinary online course offerings and instruction. Faculty in this learning community completed a series of professional development activities, which included a variety of pedagogical strategies to address faculty instructional needs. One such professional development activity was the Quality Matters “Applying the Quality Matters Rubric” course. Completion of the “Applying the Quality Matters Rubric” course allowed faculty to review their online courses and measure them against the Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric. Based on the Quality Matters Rubric, the faculty learning community indicated changes to be made in their subsequent online course offerings in preparation for the official QM Peer Review Process. This session will highlight the efforts of a STEM micro-cohort of this online quality assurance initiative and the institutional implications that resulted from its undertaking.
Furthermore, directly resulting from the initial preparation of courses for QM Peer Review, NCCU recognized an immediate need to systematically ensure accessibility for all learners and embarked upon the creation the NCCU Accessibility Policy for Online Course Design. This policy was developed in collaboration with the Office of e-Learning, Office of Student Disability Services, Office of Faculty Professional Development, and input from a committee of faculty and staff. The Policy was approved by the NCCU Board of Trustees in June 2016 and is informed by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, the NCCU Web Standards and Procedures, and General Standard 8 of the QM Higher Education Rubric.
Session attendees will explore how NCCU prepared faculty for the implementation of the NCCU Accessibility Policy for Online Course Design and provided skill development training to ensure the creation of accessible digital content via the NCCU Accessibility Basics training series. This series began with a one-hour introductory workshop to identify the regulations requiring accessibility compliance, explain course developer expectations, identify faculty support offices and services, and address methods for resolving accessibility issues. Following the initial workshop, faculty selected two of four specialized mini- modules exploring closed captioning, alternative text for images and videos, creating accessible documents, and course shell readability.
Participants will engage in discussions to identify resources, campuses services, and existent policies that would support the implementation of Quality Matters on multiple campus types. Session attendees will also be encouraged to identify best practices to support universal design and meet the needs of diverse digital learners in alignment with institutional expecations and accrediting standards.