I have recently completed a 3-week course on Quality Matters, a peer-review program for assessing distance education classes for improving them. Two others from UAA, Pat and Kathi, also took the training. There were things I liked and didn't like about the rubric- and it is generally pretty good. We've had some good discussions about Quality Matters and the peer review process. I am excited about the community that could develop as faculty look at their classes together for the purpose of making them better so that students can learn.
We took the next step of calling a meeting of interested faculty at UAA to present to them our learnings about Quality Matters. Kathi also dug up Blackboard's review system. The rubric and the faculty checklist address instruction issues more than Quality Matters does. Blackboard's faculty review document is a thorough way for faculty to self-reveiw their courses. The Center for Distance Education at UAF also has a rubric for distance classes.
The meeting was recorded in Elluminate.
We'll be taking a next step of using parts of the 3 rubrics to peer evaluate a distance class in early January. We had several volunteers to choose from.
