Four More Faculty Earn Quality Matters Certification

Thu, 11 Aug 2022 08:31:05 -0400
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After participating in rigorous peer reviews of their online and hybrid courses, four additional UMBC faculty have earned Quality Matters certification as part of the campus’ Quality Matters Impact (QMI) pilot.

Faculty participants received feedback from certified Quality Matters peer reviewers at UMBC and other online learning experts in the QM community.

The four courses are:

EHS 115 - Medical Terminology

Gary Williams

Date certified: 06.01.2022

GWST 210 - Introduction to Critical Sexuality Studies

Kate Drabinski

Date certified: 05.23.2022

SOCY 351 - Health, Illness, and Medicine

John Schumacher

Date certified: 05.27.2022

CMSC 104 - Problem Solving and Computer Programming

Chris Marron

Date certified: 07.26.2022

These four faculty join those who earned QM Certification earlier this year:

AGNG 355 - The Experience of Dementia (Louise Murray)

CHEM 101 - Principles of Chemistry 1 (Sarah Bass)

EDUC 667 - Structure of English for TESOL (Mary Tabaa)

ENCH 300 - Chemical Process Thermodynamics (Mariajose Castellanos)

PBHL 100 - Survey of the US Healthcare System (Katie Birger)

In partnership with the Provost’s Office, the QMI pilot launched in FA2021 as an extension of the award-winning PIVOT program to recognize exemplary course design.

A QM Official review provides independent validation of quality, learner-focused course design. As of August 2022, nine of the 14 QM certified courses in the University System of Maryland are from UMBC. The certifications are valid for five years.

To maintain QM certification, and be listed on QM’s website, courses may be re-certified for an additional three years or officially reviewed again. A course achieves QM Certification when it meets QM Rubric Standards at the 85% threshold or better and meets all Essential Standards.

The newly certified courses are eligible to display the QM Certification Mark, an internationally recognized symbol of online and blended course design quality. The QM Certification Mark represents these instructors’ ongoing commitment to creating learning environments that provide students with a clear pathway to success.

DoIT’s Instructional Technology team manages the formal review process and facilitates the fully online, asynchronous Applying the Quality Matters Rubric workshop designed to help instructors prepare for a formal course review. When a course is deemed having met QM standards, the instructor is eligible to display the QM Certification Mark on the syllabus or within the course.