Quality Matters Faculty Fellowship Institute
Quality Matters (QM) is an international benchmark for quality assurance in online learning. Since 2003, educators have participated in QM professional development opportunities to help them learn how to build high-quality online courses.
What is Quality Matters?
Quality Matters (QM) is an international benchmark for quality assurance in online learning. Since 2003, educators have participated in QM professional development opportunities to help them learn how to build high-quality online courses. QM, which began as a U.S. Department of Education grant-funded research project, is now a full-fledged non-profit organization that provides research-based online course evaluation rubrics, a standardized peer review process for applying the rubrics to online course evaluation, and professional development opportunities for online educators. Over the past two decades, QM’s online course evaluation process has become an international benchmark for quality assurance in all facets of online learning, from primary to tertiary, to continuing education contexts. Since 2015, UArizona faculty and staff have participated in QM trainings and peer reviews, free of charge, due to our statewide consortium membership.
Purpose of the Fellowship
The Quality Matters Fellowship provides an opportunity to gain proficiency in online and blended course design. As a fellow, you will hone your course evaluation skills by applying empirically developed and time-tested best practices while serving as a peer review chair and recertification coordinator for online and blended courses. You will develop leadership and community-building skills as you collaborate with an instructional design team to create and deliver Quality Matters educational initiatives within or beyond your own program, department, or college. This fellowship is a way to give back to your professional community as you gain important practical experience as a course evaluator. The knowledge you gain will make you a valuable pedagogical consultant within your respective department and within your field.
Eligibility
Tenure and career track faculty are welcome to apply for this fellowship position. Any other university staff who regularly teaches for-credit online courses is also encouraged to apply. All applicants must be eligible to receive Other Professional Services Compensation (OPS). No previous experience with Quality Matters is necessary. Each applicant is limited to one application per annual cycle. If an individual is accepted as a Fellow, that individual is no longer eligible to apply for the same fellowship position in the future.
Compensation
Fellows can tailor their fellowship to meet their personal and professional needs by selecting options from the “a la carte” menu listed below. Fellows will be compensated for each completed a la carte task.
QM Fellowship a la carte menu
This menu provides a range of experiences and their corresponding compensation, distributed upon completion of those experiences. Upon acceptance to the fellowship program, Fellows select several experiences that they would like to complete.
Please note:
- Each fellow can earn up to $5000 through completion of the fellowship tasks listed below.
- The minimum commitment for fellows is to complete one experience from each column.
- All fellows must serve as either a QMIR peer reviewer or chair once per semester. This is a “built-in” task, which does not result in extra compensation. However, it may be exchanged for a Recertification Coordinator experience (which is compensated) when appropriate.
|
QM Certification |
Course Reviews |
Educational Outreach |
Publication |
|---|---|---|---|
|
APPQMR workshop 2-week online course introducing you to the QM peer review. Time commitment: 20 hours (10 hours per week) Compensation: $500 (plus free access to workshop, valued at $220) |
QMIR Peer Reviewer *prerequisite: APPQMR Serve on a team of 3 trained professionals to conduct an internal course review. Time commitment: 10-12 hours (across 3 weeks) Compensation: N/A |
Workshop facilitation Faciliate a workshop for which you have received training. You may choose one of the following: APPQMR, DYOC, IYOC. All are offered as online and asynchronous workshops. See the first column for details. Compensation: $500 |
UCATT Blogpost *prerequisite: APPQMR Publish a QM-related blog post in the UCATT website. Time commitment: 1-2 hours Compensation: $75 |
|
Peer Reviewer Course (PRC) *prerequisite: APPQMR 3-week online course leading to official peer reviewer role. Time commitment: 30 hours (10 hours per week) Compensation: $1,000 (plus free access to workshop, valued at $220) |
QMIR Chair *prerequisite: PRC Lead a team of 3 trained professionals to conduct an internal course review. Time commitment: 12-15 hours (across 3 weeks) Compensation: N/A |
Webinar Facilitation *prerequisite: APPQMR Collaborate with instructional designers to facilitate Quality Counts webinars. Each month, we deliver a webinar in this series. Each webinar focuses on how to apply different Standards in the QM rubric. Time commitment per webinar: 1-2 hours Compensation: $100 |
Podcast Speaker *prerequisite: APPQMR Participate as a guest in a bi-monthly podcast for the Quality Assurance and Learning Innovation (QALI) Newsletter. Time commitment: 1 hour Compensation: $50 |
|
APPQMR Facilitator Training *prerequisites: APPQMR & PRC This online 3-week workshop prepares you to facilitate the APPQMR. Time commitment: 40 hours (across 3 weeks) Compensation: $1,500 (plus free access to workshop, valued at $550) |
Recertification Coordinator *prerequisite: APPQMR As a Recert coordinator, you will evaluate a course and provide course revision guidance to course developers. An instructional designer will support you in offering this guidance. Time commitment: 15 hours (across 3-8 weeks) Compensation: $500 per course (can exchange for QMIR review in second semester of fellowship) |
QM Short Presentation *prerequisite: APPQMR Collaborate with instructional designers to deliver a QM-focused interactive presentation to a group of faculty/instructors. Time commitment: 4-6 hours Compensation: $250 |
External Blogpost *prerequisites: APPQMR & PRC
Publish a research-based blogpost on a credible, popular educational site (e.g., Educause, Chronicle of higher education, Edutopia, etc.). Time commitment: 10-12 hours Compensation: $500 |
|
IYOC or DYOC Facilitator Training *prerequisites: APPQMR, PRC, & APPQMR Facilitator Training These online 2-week workshops prepare you to facilitate the Designing Your Own Course (DYOC) or Improving Your Own Course (IYOC) workshops. Time commitment: 20 hours per training (10 hours per week). Compensation: $1,000 (plus free access to workshop, valued at $550) |
QM Coder *prerequisite: APPQMR Collaborate with instructional designers on our research team to evaluate courses for the purpose of publication. Time commitment: 10-15 hours per evaluation Compensation: $550 per coding cycle |
QM Just-In-Time Training *prerequisite: APPQMR Collaborate with instructional designers to design and deliver a QM-focused in-person training which teaches instructors how to apply the rubric. Time commitment: 15-20 hours Compensation: $600 |
QM Researcher *prerequisite: APPQMR Assist on an existing research team, or initiate your own QM-focused research project. This fellowship initiative may also be combined with other means of support. Time commitment: To be decided Compensation: To be decided |
Application & Selection process
Five fellows will be chosen per academic year. The fellowship begins in the summer term and ends in the spring semester of the following year.
2023-2024 Timeline
- May 24th - April 10th: Call for applications open
- April 10th: applications due
- May 10th: All applicants notified of the final decisions regarding their applications
- May 25th: Fellowship begins
- May 24th, following year: Fellowship ends
Submission cycle & Application process
To be considered for a QM Faculty Fellowship position, please fill out the application form. This application form also requires you to upload a Letter of Interest. After you fill out the application form, you will receive an email confirmation that your application has been received. Applications are evaluated after the application cycle closes, and applicants are notified of the final decision within one month of date that the application cycle closes.
Updated 1/12/23
