If you have been involved in a Quality Matters (QM) review, you know how detailed and thorough these need to be. During our reviews, we started to notice that "course alignment" is probably the predominant aspect of most of the essential standards that the QM rubric measures, and that it is not always easy inferring the intentions of the course designer or subject matter expert (SME), when designing the course materials and assessments. In other words, the journey of mapping the alignment between course objectives, modular objectives, course materials and assessments is not an easy one.
In an effort to make this mapping process easier, we started developing and using a matrix-like template that serves as an instrument to map the alignment of the course elements listed above. We have found out, that if used as recommended, it can help not only with evaluative post-design tasks, but also as a training instrument, design tool, and even as a communication apparatus.
Please join Sharon Mainka and me (@gerardopedraza) for an interactive presentation on Monday October 31, in our conference presentation in Portland, during the 8th Annual Conference on Quality Assurance in Online Learning: Blazing New Trails.
