Quality Matters (QM) Resources

Quality Matters

Overview

With annual support from the CSU Chancellor's Office, CETL is proud to sponsor the campus' Quality Assurance (QA) program.

Since the summer of 2014, we have grown the campus' QA program which includes the following efforts:

Quality Matters Information

Quality Matters (TM)

Cal State L.A., along with the CSU system is a Quality Matters (QM) subscriber. QM is a faculty-centered, peer review process that is designed to certify the quality of online courses and online components. QM has received national recognition for its peer-based approach to quality assurance and continuous improvement in online education. More information on the Quality Matters Program can be found on their website.

QM offers FREE webinars called QM Success Stories to subscribers. All Cal State LA faculty can create a free QM account affiliated with our institution. For instructions on creating a MyQM account, please click here. Our institution is listed as "California State University-Los Angeles" (no spaces). Please ensure you use your Cal State LA email address to create a QM account.  Accounts created with personal or non-Cal State LA email addresses will be canceled. 

The campus QM coordinator will verify your details and approve your account.

QM offers a variety of workshops for faculty professional development below.

QM Workshop Offerings

This FREE one-hour, self-paced course covers many elements of Quality Matters (QM) and is a great introduction to anyone who is unfamiliar with QM's origin, evolution, and scope.  This course highlights factors that may affect the quality of online learning, and covers what it takes for a course to be QM-certified.  (No Cost)

Intended Audience: Faculty, instructional designers, department chairs, and other administrators who are unfamiliar with Quality Matters and/or want to learn more about QM course reviews. 

Click here to register for this workshop

This workshop explores the basic components of online course delivery.  Participants will be introduced to differences between traditional face-to-face learning and online learning, the instructor’s role in the online classroom, the importance of getting (and keeping) students engaged, and methods of facilitating online discussions using the discussion board.  Participants should expect to spend at least 8-10 hours per week to successfully complete this two-week fully online workshop. (Cost: $200)

Intended Audience: Faculty and administrators who are interested or curious about teaching online or hybrid. 

This workshop includes an overview of the QM Rubric and provides a framework for participants to design an online course plan. An integral element of the workshop is an exploration of the eight General Standards of the QM Rubric, focusing on learning objectives and overall course alignment.  Participants will complete a Module Planning Worksheet to design one module of an online course. The worksheet includes course and module learning objectives, assessments that align with the learning objectives, instructional materials that support the learning objectives and activities, and tools and media that enhance student interaction with classmates, content, and the instructor.  Participants can expect to spend about 8-10 hours per week to successfully complete this two-week fully online workshop. (Cost: FREE through the CSU Online Course Services Program). 

Note: Participants will be working on a portion of an existing face-to-face course throughout the session that will be redesigned into an online course component.

Intended Audience: Faculty who have already taught face-to-face, and are interested in designing a fully online course. 

This workshop explores the eight General Standards in the QM Rubric and provides a framework to build a blended course. While QM recognizes that each institution will define "blended" in its own way, this framework will work with any combination of face-to-face and online elements. Participants use the QM Rubric to review key blended elements and develop a course development plan.  Participants can expect to spend about 8-10 hours per week to successfully complete this two-week fully online workshop. (Cost: $150)

Note: Participants will be working on a portion of an existing course throughout the session that will be redesigned into a blended course component.

Intended Audience: Faculty who have already taught face-to-face, and are interested in designing a hybrid course. 

QM's flagship workshop on the QM Rubric and the process of using the QM Rubric to review online/hybrid courses. It is intended for a broad audience, including faculty, instructional designers, administrators, and adjunct instructors who wish to understand more about quality considerations in online and hybrid/blended course design.  Participants taking the fully online version of this workshop should expect to spend at least 15-20 hours on activities during the two-week duration.  (Cost: FREE through the CSU Online Course Services Program). 

Intended Audience: Faculty, instructional designers, and administrators who are interested in learning about the rubric and/or evaluating online/hybrid courses; faculty who are interested in QM certification; faculty who are interested in becoming a QM peer reviewer. This workshop is a required prerequisite to become a formal QM reviewer. 

This workshop explores the QM Rubric and provides a framework to improve the quality of online courses. Participants use the QM Rubric to review their own existing online course and develop a course improvement plan. The content is based on the essential Specific Review Standards of the Quality Matters Rubric. Participants come away with a plan for course improvement.  Participants must have a pre-developed online/hybrid course prior to enrolling in this workshop. (Cost: FREE through the CSU Online Course Services Program). 

If taken through Quality Matters, the workshop fee is $150. CSU Online Course Services offers this workshop to CSU instructors for free or a reduced fee. For information on CSU workshop dates and registration, please check their website.  

Intended Audience: Faculty who have already designed and taught a fully online or hybrid course.  

The Peer Reviewer Course is designed to prepare experienced online faculty to serve as QM-Certified Peer Reviewers. This course includes a review of the foundational principles of Quality Matters and the QM Rubric. In addition, over the three-week period, participants apply Specific Review Standards to a sample online course (i.e., locate evidence, make decisions based on the evidence, and write helpful recommendations). Finally, participants use their new skill set to complete a practice review of an online course using eight Specific Review Standards from the QM Rubric. This "Practice Review" assignment is completed in the QM Course Review Management System (CRMS) which QM-Certified Peer Reviewers use in a real course review. Unlike other QM workshops, this course has firm assignment due dates that must be adhered to in order to successfully complete the course.

Intended audience: Faculty interested in becoming QM peer reviewers either for the CSU system or nationally for QM. QM's Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) workshop is a required prerequisite in order to take this course. NOTE: There is a $220 cost payable to QM to take this course. This course is only offered through Quality Matters and not through the CSU system.

QA Training Opportunities

Someone taking QA training

The CSU Chancellor's Office offers training for CSU faculty. Please click here for additional information on training workshops and dates.

CETL also offers the following faculty development programming as part of the campus' quality assurance efforts:

QA Information

For more information on previous QA efforts, please see our annual QA ePortfolios which report on our yearly progress:

Learn more about the CSU's Online Course Services Program (formerly Quality Assurance program).