I started watching tonight Quality Matters (QM) conference sessions from last month. The title of the one I watched tonight was “Examining the Impact of a Quality Assurance Initiative on Student Success.” Cheryl Saelee, Senior eLearning Specialist at California State University – East Bay, has 70+ online/hybrid programs and certificates. TheCSU East Bay campuses enroll over 10,000 students and 1,700 faculty and staff. Last semester, Saelee noted, 25% of students took classes fully online. In 2015, East Bay began the Quality Assurance program with a grant from the Provost Office. The program is similar to ours at NC State, with support for faculty to complete Quality Matters (QM) training and prepare courses for certification. Cal State East Bay was the first CSU QM Subscriber Managed Review Institution that helps them reduce costs. The campus has 28 peer reviewers, four master reviewers, and seven certified facilitators. They have 200+ QM certified courses! Erick Kong, a professor at CSU East Bay, did research on the impact of the QA program on student grade distributions. This quantitative study demonstrated an impact with lower percentages of students i “remedial” course distribution categories. Saelee did note that they haven’t officially done research on student feedback. A survey sent to faculty completing the QA training revealed that respondents noted course organization as a major outcome of the program. Saelee shared the dashboard they created for the program. They did note that funding has decreased “significantly” for their program. The website dashboard allows filtering by location and college and can display different metrics. The bar graphs consistently showed higher grades for those learners taking Quality Assurance program courses. The discussion portion of the session had numerous critical questions from attendees. Student satisfaction data has not been systematically obtained. The impact of funding cuts was mentioned several times. The incentives for faculty to take training to create QM-certified courses are critical!
