What are the policies and expectations for QM online certification courses?

Academic Integrity

Plagiarism, falsification, misrepresentation, or any other kind of academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. Plagiarism includes posting others' ideas as one's own and copying and pasting verbiage from QM materials or lessons without citing the source. All work should be that of the participant. Evidence of plagiarism will result in serious consequences, up to and including being expelled from the course and barred from holding QM roles.

Quality Matters encourages collaboration, but if you discuss activities with colleagues, you must still each submit your original work.

Access to Course

Participants will have access to the course for seven days after the course ends. Once the seven-day window has elapsed, QM will not re-open the course, so be sure to save/download any resources you want from the site.

Accessibility

Participants who require accommodations should contact their institution's disability services or accessibility office and Quality Matters at least two weeks before the start of their session to request an accommodation.

Quality Matters supports the provisions of General Standard 8, Accessibility and Usability, in the QM Rubric. QM strongly supports reasonable accommodation for all participants.

All QM courses are offered in Canvas. Canvas complies with all major international standards in the area of accessibility, including XHTML Strict 1.0. For more information on Canvas and its development, please visit the Canvas Accessibility webpage.

QM's courses include:

  • ALT tags that contain appropriate information about the graphic or activity
  • Appropriate color combinations that minimize color blindness effects.
  • Appropriate font and font-size combinations to improve readability.
  • Links to descriptions of accommodation features for the learning management system (Canvas) and any additional third-party tools, e.g., CourseArc.
  • Minimal use of bullets and/or charts that may confuse participants who use electronic readers.
  • Transcripts for audio clips.
  • Closed captions for videos.

The above features demonstrate QM's understanding of the importance of providing a learning environment that supports all participants.

Canvas maintains a list of officially supported screen reader/browser configurations. Participants who experience issues using a screen reader with Canvas should first verify they are using a supported configuration. Participants who are not using a supported configuration or who experience issues even when using a supported configuration are encouraged to try a different configuration or contact their institution’s office of accessibility and/or the vendor of the screen reader product they are using for support.

Disclaimer: Meeting QM Specific Review Standards regarding accessibility does not guarantee or imply that the specific accessibility regulations of any country are met. Please consult with an accessibility specialist at your institution to ensure that accessibility regulations are met.

Communication

Participants

Course participants are expected to:

  • Post any questions or concerns about the content and/or requirements to the Q&A Discussion, so everyone can access the information.
  • Send requests of a more personal nature directly to the facilitator.
  • Request a real-time conversation with the facilitator if you have questions about your feedback on an assignment or activity. 
  • Use the Help link in Canvas to get technical help. Facilitators are not expected to resolve technical issues.

Facilitator Feedback

Course facilitators are expected to:

  • Make every effort to communicate frequently with participants through announcements and other discussion posts.
  • Reply to posts and provide feedback on assignments within 24-48 hours after the due date. Participants who work ahead should be aware that facilitators are grading according to the schedule and may have to wait longer so the facilitator can concentrate on the current work that is due.
  • Post an announcement if they will be unavailable for more than one day.
  • Answer Q&A Discussion questions within 24 hours.

Completion

Quality Matters does not offer letter grades. Participants either successfully complete or do not successfully complete a course. Participants who successfully complete a course and complete the evaluation will have access to a Certificate of Completion. 

To successfully complete a course, participants must complete all required activities at 85% or better and be marked "Complete" by their Facilitator. For activities evaluated numerically, a score of 85% or better means the participant has successfully completed the activity. For activities evaluated on a "Met/Revise" basis, a "Met" rating means the participant has successfully completed the activity.

Course facilitators determine completion. Facilitators will inform you of your completion status by email at the end of the course or sooner if you have not met expectations on an assignment after two attempts. If necessary, the facilitator can send the "Does not meet expectations" email before the course ends.

Grading

To succeed in this course, you must complete the required assignments at a Met level based on QM’s 85% standard. Facilitators do not use a point tally to determine whether or not a participant has been successful.

Some assignments or assessments are reported in points (quizzes, for example), but the final determination is whether the points indicate the assignments were Met at the 85% level. The instructions for individual assignments and quizzes give the information on how many points are needed to earn a Met rating.

You can use the Grades features to keep track of your progress. The link to your grades is in the main navigation menu.

You can also use the “Schedule and Checklist” as a to-do list and to track your progress.

And, of course, if you have any questions about your progress in your course, please contact your facilitator.

See also Late Work and Revisions.

Language

Quality Matters professional development will be conducted in English. Participants will be required to complete all coursework (assignments, discussions, quizzes, etc.) in English and are expected to communicate with the facilitator in English.

Late Work

Quality Matters certification courses include firm due dates for each assignment due to the expectations QM has for all QM roles. Timely submission of assignments demonstrates your ability to meet deadlines. QM defines late work as any initial work that is submitted after the firm due date. Please do not wait until the last minute to complete your work. QM Facilitators have 48 hours from the firm due date to provide feedback.

QM Facilitators provide extensions to the firm deadlines in certification courses at their sole discretion.

No new work will be accepted after the course end date. However, revisions will be accepted within 48 hours after grading. Participants are responsible for monitoring their progress in the course and ensuring they have earned the required score for each assignment.

See also Completion and Revisions.

Netiquette

Netiquette, or Internet etiquette, are guidelines for maintaining civilized, professional, and effective communication in the online environment and email exchanges. Facilitators and participants will demonstrate appropriate netiquette when interacting with each other. Written communication will be conducted using standard business English. Here are some basic guidelines:

  • Keep your questions and comments relevant to the discussion topic. If another participant posts an off-topic comment or question, do not reply. The facilitator will reply in private to the participant.
  • Treat the other participants in the discussion politely and respectfully.
  • Model the same standards of behavior online you would follow in a face-to-face discussion.
  • Do not use ALL CAPS when posting, as this is "shouting."
  • Do not "flame" others in discussions. Flaming is the "act of responding in a highly critical, sarcastic, or ridiculing manner."

Quality Matters reserves the right to remove posts that are not collegial or constructive and/or do not meet netiquette guidelines. Participants who do not exhibit collegial communication will not be allowed to complete the course.

Participation

Participants who actively participate in the course throughout the entire course get the most out of the experience. Therefore, course participants are expected to:

  • Log in to the course at least 5 times per week.
  • Read all required materials (unless indicated otherwise, all materials are required).
  • Complete all required activities (unless indicated otherwise, all activities are required).
  • Follow the posted discussion rubric.
  • Reply to at least one other participant in each of the required discussions (unless indicated otherwise, replying to at least one other participant is required in all discussions).
  • Revisit the discussions until the end date of the course to read new posts and answer any questions asked of you.

Revisions

In most cases, participants will not have more than two opportunities to successfully complete an assignment - one original submission and one revision.

If a revision is required, participants have 48 hours to return the revised assignment to the facilitator for re-evaluation. The 48-hour time frame does not mean your submission has to be submitted exactly within 48 hours. Facilitators typically allow participants until midnight at their local time. All revisions should be submitted through Canvas discussions, quizzes, or the assignment submission page, not via email.

Quality Matters certification courses lead to certification in a specific QM role and are significantly more rigorous than QM workshops. Course participants must demonstrate they have the knowledge and skills to hold this role. You are expected to complete assignments promptly and correctly; each major assignment will be marked and feedback provided. Facilitators have high expectations for your work and will ask you to revise assignments that do not meet expectations. Once you have had a chance to practice a skill or acquire knowledge, Facilitators expect you to use your skills and knowledge to solve problems and/or answer questions. In some cases, particularly for assignments that have multiple parts or the final assessments, you may have to revise an assignment with minimal feedback from your facilitator. Facilitators are not expected to give you the answers, but to serve as guides to let you know if you are making progress toward meeting expectations.

If you are unable to meet expectations on an assignment or assessment after two attempts (your initial attempt and one revision), you will be asked to retake the course, including paying the registration fee again for another seat in another session.

See also Completion and Late Work.

Time Commitment

QM expects participants to invest a significant amount of time in completing their courses. Each module in the course includes an estimate of the time it will take to complete. These estimates are intended to give participants an idea of approximately how long the module will take so they can budget their time accordingly. All modules may be completed in multiple sittings. For example, if the estimated time for a module is three hours, you can split these hours up in any way that works for your schedule.

The times included for each module are estimates only and will vary based on each participant’s experience with QM, the QM learning management system, etc. The Schedule and Checklist indicates the approximate amount of time per module participants should expect to spend; consider this the minimum amount of time you should expect to spend and if revisions are needed the time will increase as that time is not included in the estimate.

Review the "How can I be successful in completing QM professional development?" FAQ page for more information on getting the most out of QM professional development.