Academy for Teaching and Learning Excellence (ATLE)

Membership

Quality Matters (QM) is an internationally recognized non-profit organization that is committed to promoting and improving the quality of online education and student learning. QM achieves this goal through professional development of faculty and instructional designers and the use of a QM Rubric for quality assurance. Rock Valley College is a member of Quality Matters, and as such, all faculty and staff are encouraged to create a MyQM account to utilize QM resources and register for professional development. Members of Quality Matters are eligible to participate in QM training at free or discounted rates and may conduct a self-review of their online courses using the QM rubric and QM's Course Review Management System (CRMS).

Internal Course Review

To teach online courses at RVC, faculty members must first demonstrate proficiency in online learning pedagogy through credit course completion, professional development training, and/or equivalent work experience(s). Upon completion of online teaching and learning training or verification of prior training, faculty wishing to teach online will use their MyQM account to submit a course for an internal review and complete the course review worksheet. The purpose of the review is to offer feedback about the course and make recommendations. The review is not meant to be an approval process.

An internal review team comprised of at least one reviewer who has completed QM's Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) or Improving Your Online Course (IYOC) workshops and one reviewer who is a QM-Certified Peer or Master Reviewer will review the course. The review is conducted in QM’s system using MyCR essential standards for quality online courses. After completing the review, the faculty member is then able to teach online courses.

Quality Matters Essential Standards Badge

Faculty members who complete the internal review process and whose course meets all 23 of RVC’s essential standards will earn the QM Essential Standards digital badge, which can be displayed in the course to acknowledge achievement in quality online course design. The badge is valid for five years as long as there are no significant changes made to the course. If it has been more than five years since the badge was earned or if a course has changed significantly, then the course will need to be internally reviewed again. Faculty members who have been approved previously to teach online and want to earn the QM's Essential Standards badge can do so by submitting a course for review in QM. The course will go through the same review process mentioned above.