Coastal Carolina University becomes a Quality Matters institution

Coastal Carolina University recently became a Quality Matters institution. "Quality Matters (QM) is a faculty-centered, peer review process that is designed to certify the quality of online and blended courses" according to the website at http://www.qmprogram.org/.

In the fall of 2003, MarylandOnline Inc. began a three-year grant funded by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) entitled "Quality Matters: Inter-Institutional Quality Assurance in Online Education." QM has become a nonprofit organization that provides tools and training to ensure quality in online education. QM provides a set of standards (The QM Rubric) to help guide the design of online courses and provides a peer review process between faculty to gauge online and blended courses based upon these standards. The development of the QM standards was based upon an extensive literature review.

To inform the CCU community about the benefits of Quality Matters, the TEAL Center in Kimbel Library is hosting a series of face-to-face trainings as well as online orientations to the program. To learn more about Quality Matters, visit Coastal's Quality Matters website (http://libguides.coastal.edu/qualitymatters), contact Jacob Bane in TEAL Center or sign-up for training on the TEAL Center's website at http://www.coastal.edu/teal/training.