About Quality Course Review

The Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence (CAFE) strongly encourages all instructors (faculty, adjuncts, lecturers, etc.) to create well-developed, engaging, and effective courses that adhere to best practices in teaching.

Quality Course Review (QCR) is designed to ensure that courses adhere to high standards of pedagogy and thus provide students with an overall positive learning experience.

The QCR process ensures that your course focuses on student-centered engagement and alignment with student learning outcomes, which will help the course meet national accreditation standards, regardless of discipline.

CAFE uses a 5 Pillars of Quality Review rubric, based off the Quality Matters standard, for reviewing courses. This document is very helpful when designing or re-designing a course. Note that the standards in this rubric are highly flexible to account for the different variations in how each instructor might meet that standard.

This process is intended for online courses. However, ANY course can be reviewed, as the 5 Pillars can apply to ANY course--there is little distinction between online and face-to-face courses in the rubric.

How QCR Works:

  1. Design and build your course. Use the 5-Pillars-Quality-Review document to guide your design. Consult with CAFE with any questions you may have.
  2. When you feel you are ready, submit your course for review.
  3. CAFE will assign an instructional designer (ID) and a QCR Peer Reviewer (QPR) to go through a copy of your course and ensure that all of the REQUIRED items in the 5 Pillars Quality Review rubric have been met. NOTE: The QPR will NOT be someone from within your department. This is by design so that you have an outsider's perspective on your course. Our goal is only to review the design of the course; we do not review the quality or depth of the content.
  4. The ID and QPR will provide constructive feedback on how to meet the REQUIRED items in the 5 Pillars Quality Review rubric.
  5. Once all the REQUIRED items in the 5 Pillars Quality Review have been met, you will be given the official stamp of approval to teach this course online by the Vice Provost of Online Learning and Education Innovation.

This is an iterative process, so you may meet with an ID and/or a QPR multiple times throughout the process. It make take up to four weeks to complete QCR, depending on the readiness of the course and the amount of revisions required.

QCR Peer Reviewer

 

5 Pillars Quality Review

The 5 Pillars Quality Review is available as a fillable PDF document:

5-Pillars-Quality-Review

This document allows you to check off the items as they have been completed. You will discover that you are already meeting a great deal of these items already in your course. This document helps you find any gaps that may need to be filled. Or you can use it as guidance for improving the existing items that your course is already meeting.

The course design includes a complete syllabus, an opportunity for students to meet others in the course early on, and a welcome module containing materials needed for online student success.

REQUIRED

  1. Does the course utilize the University-approved Learning Management System, Canvas? May be used as a portal to other resources for students.
  2. Are there accurate links or clear descriptions of student support services (like Student Resources, Technology Support, and Academic Support services) provided by the university? For course share courses, are student support services identified for all campuses?
  3. Is the course syllabus available as a PDF or Word file (or pasted into Canvas) in the Syllabus button or Canvas module?
  4. Does the syllabus/course include an institution catalog or bulletin course description with necessary prerequisites/corequisites and number of credit hours?
  5. Are grading criteria (example: grading scale, grading/weight table, etc.) clearly outlined in the syllabus or at the beginning of the course?
  6. Are the points/percentages listed consistently throughout the course site?
  7. Does the syllabus/course include online participation policies and expectations? For blended courses this should include policies for both face-to-face and online components.
  8. Are professional/communication expectations in discussions, email, and other course interactions with instructor and classmates clearly stated?
  9. Does the syllabus/course include or link to the policy for academic policies?
  10. Is there a clearly communicated plan for providing feedback on assignments? May include timeline/method.
  11. Is there evidence that the instructor welcomes students to the course? May occur through an announcement, video, module, discussion, video conference, etc.
  12. Does the course provide instructions on how to get started and navigate the course?

RECOMMENDED

  1. Does the syllabus/course include a preferred citation format?
  2. Are students directed to the online student course (or other applicable resource to acclimate students to Canvas) in the syllabus or an introductory module?
  3. Does the course provide information about the number of hours per week required for students to meet course expectations?

The course design includes frequent, meaningful, and relevant opportunities for students to interact with the instructor, the content, and one another. The syllabus specifies a timeline for instructor response to messages and feedback on assignments.

REQUIRED

  1. Does the instructor provide adequate contact information? May include virtual office hours or other suitable communication media.
  2. Are students given the opportunity to introduce themselves to each other?
  3. Does the instructor have opportunities for interaction and engagement with the students in the course on at least a weekly
    basis?
  4. Are there opportunities to build a learning community in this course to foster student interaction throughout? Examples may include: Replying to peers in discussion, Group workspace identified and explained, Clear directions about project phases,  Structure to support group communication, Group member roles defined, Peer evaluation, Evaluation criteria defined, etc.

RECOMMENDED

  1. Does the course include faculty background information and a faculty photo?
  2. Does the course include video lectures or module introduction recordings?

The syllabus includes the course goal(s), and specific, measurable learning objectives are included in each module. The course design includes varied, systematic, and regular assessments that align to those objectives and are appropriate for the level of the course.

REQUIRED

  1. Are there overall course objectives that are written in measurable terms?
  2. Are module-level learning objectives written in measurable terms that address achievable and specific student outcomes?
  3. Do all module-level learning objectives align with the course-level learning objectives?
  4. Do all of the assessments (learning activities and assignments) measure student performance of the stated learning objectives for that learning module/unit?
  5. Do assessments (learning activities and assignments) have clear instructions for completion?
  6. Does the course contain formative assessments (learning activities and assignments) that are sequenced and paced to allow students to assess their progress, and for instructors to monitor student learning throughout the term?
  7. Are formative assessments (learning activities and assignments) scaffolded to prepare students for successful completion of summative assessments?

RECOMMENDED

  1. Do assessments (learning activities and assignments) have clearly articulated start dates and deadlines for completion (using the Canvas due date feature) or interim/staggered deadlines for more involved projects (as applicable)?
  2. Are expectations for assessments (learning activities and assignments) clearly communicated via a rubric or suitable alternative?
  3. Do discussion assignments include a rationale and incentive for re-visiting after the first contribution?

The course materials, activities, and assessments are varied and relevant to the course, clearly explained, and accessible to all students. The course includes current links to necessary student supports and policies.

REQUIRED

  1. Do required audio recordings and videos have transcripts and/or captions provided?
  2. Do all images embedded in course pages and/or faculty-created documents contain alternate text and if not, are they marked
    as decorative?
  3. Do all faculty-created documents in the course (Word, PowerPoint, PDF, etc.) pass the accessibility checker built into each
    product?
  4. Does the course and all components therein use color combinations that are high contrast? In other words, they avoid bad color combinations that may present an issue for color blind students, such as red/green, green/brown, green/blue, blue/gray,  blue/purple, green/grey, and green/black)?
  5. Are hyperlinks meaningful? For example: “Access UM System Resources for Students” instead of "https://keeplearning.umsystem.edu/ students.”
  6. Does the course provide information to students about how to access University Disability Services?

RECOMMENDED

  1. If students are asked to create separate accounts in order to use a third-party tool, are they provided the following? (Tools in which students have to create their own accounts should go through a UM security audit before using.)
    • Purpose
    • Privacy Policy
    • Support Document
    • Accessibility Documentation
  2. Does the instructor provide student-facing instructions for using all required tools not supported by the University?
  3. Does the use of technology support the learning goals, unit objectives, and competencies?
  4. If applicable, are library resources (PDFs, articles, ebooks, etc.) provided using a sustainable method (e.g., permalinked, e-reserves, etc.)?
  5. If the course uses Affordable/Open Educational Resources or AutoAccess resources, are students provided access and/or opt-out information?

The course design is organized in time-based or thematic modules, and clear instructions about how to navigate the course are present. Each module includes a timespan for completion and a checklist of deadlines and point values. The Grade Book is organized and reflects the  grading criteria and structure specified in the syllabus.

REQUIRED

  1. Is the course organized in a logical and consistent manner?
  2. Does each content area/learning module have a relevant title? The title should generally reflect the topic covered in the
    module, or the chronological order of the course.
  3. Does each module/unit contain activities with due dates? This may be achieved in multiple ways.

RECOMMENDED

  1. Do all visible navigation menu items serve a necessary purpose?
  2. Does the course provide an overview (e.g., a list, table, or schedule, etc.) of all course activities and corresponding deadlines?
  3. Is there a repeating pattern or rhythm to the course activity deadlines?
  4. Does each module/unit have a start/stop date specified?