teachology
it by going over the rubric and making
significant changes. At the same time
that the course was being reviewed, I
used the updated course for the first
time with students, and I saw an
immediate and significant
improvement. My students interacted
more with each other, even beyond the
“required” interactions. That semester
was the first time I had ever been
contacted by a student wanting my
input on the drafts of a project—and
two contacted me! The changes
obviously made the course feel more
welcoming and invited them to interact
more. I was very happy with the results
course, I felt that the time period was
too compressed to have them submit
practice quizzes which would need to
be graded. Instead, I put my technical
skills to work, and created practice
quizzes in HTML pages with interactive
links that would show them the answer
when they clicked a choice. I already
had mini questions in each lesson part,
but the practice quizzes really show
them what they’ll need to know for the
graded exercises.
I am continuing to learn more about
Quality Matters and continuing to
improve my course. My latest focus is
“My students interacted more with each other,
even beyond the ‘required’ interactions. “
of the changes.
Although I had done everything I could
think of to comply with the rubric, I still
received valuable suggestions from the
reviewers. Although not all
recommendations were feasible for my
class, I implemented others right away
and I am looking forward to seeing how
they help.
One of the recommendations was to
have more practice for the students.
Since my course is an A or B term
accessibility and universal design, and
I’m trying to make my course as
accessible as possible. I highly
recommend that other faculty
members take a look at the QM rubric
and see if there are quick changes that
can be done to their class to help
improve the usability of the course. I
saw a dramatic difference in mine, and
I think others will too.
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