Dr. Cathy Montalto’s CONSCI 3940 is QM Certified

EHE EdTech would like to congratulate Dr. Cathy Montalto on her successful revision of her online version of CONSCI 3940 which recently received Quality Matters certification! Thanks to her work on this project, the course has been recommended as an exemplary course. We recently asked Professor Montalto some questions about this experience. 

 000484_montaltoWhy did you decide to revise the course?

“The primary factor that motivated me to get involved with Quality Matters was the potential to enhance student learning in a 100% online delivered course. In a 100% online delivered course, the instructional materials need to not only provide the subject matter content to the students but also to help the students use the instructional materials in order to be prepared for course assessment and to ultimately meet the course learning objectives. When students understand how the parts of the online delivered course fit together and are guided in the use of instructional materials, their learning is enhanced. Quality Matters helped me to develop instructional materials that meet these criteria.”

What new things are you most excited about within the course?

“Quality Matters focuses on clearly linking (or aligning) the course learning objectives with the instructional materials, learning activities, and assessment. When students can see how all the parts of a course are related, they are more likely to utilize the course components as intended and to achieve the course learning objectives – yielding student learning.”

Are there any other details about the experience of revising a course that you would like to mention?

“From my perspective as an instructor, the changes I made to my course via the QM review process have improved the course navigation which better connects students with the content and the learning objectives. Most instructors “know” how the parts of the course are related, but Quality Matters makes these relationships explicit and provides instructors with an opportunity to carefully and clearly delineate these relationships. In this explicit process, instructors may discover missing components, or uncover unintended redundancy, and these weaknesses can be eliminated during the course revision process, resulting in a stronger, more cohesive course.”

We at EdTech are very excited for Dr. Montalto’s accomplishments and are thrilled to have been a part!

Don’t miss Dr. Montalto speak about her experience on October 14th at our next EdTech Talks event:

October 14th The Good, The Balanced, and the Lessons Learned: A Story from the QM Review Trenches  252 Campbell Hall  11:30-12:30

Join us to hear a firsthand account of how to create an awesome online course and get it approved by the nationally recognized Quality Matters! We are honored to have Cathy Montalto here to share her knowledge about online courses and Quality Matters. Learn all the ins and outs of building an alignment map, working with the EdTech Instructional Design Team, and going through the QM Review process!

-EDTECH Team