CAP FAQs

FAQs about Quality Matters @ Southeastern and Teaching Online

What happens when I submit a course?

When you submit a course, you will receive an email confirmation that your course has been submitted and will next enter the screening process. If your course is found to pass screening, you will receive another email confirmation alerting you of the course moving forward and its assignment to ambassadors for review. If your course does not pass screening, you will receive an email with a PDF that identifies anything that may need corrections before the course is accepted for the next step of the process. Once corrections have been made, you will use the same Instructor Worksheet from the same D&D workbook to resubmit the course.

What does it mean when I receive an email saying my course HAS NOT been accepted?

Each course that is submitted goes through an extensive screening process during which vital components of a course are identified. If at any time during the screening, the course needs corrections, the course is returned to the faculty member. Once corrections have been made to the course, you will use the same Instructor Worksheet from the same D&D workbook to resubmit the course. At this point, the course will undergo the same screening process.

What does it mean when I receive an email saying my course HAS BEEN accepted?

After a course has been through the screening process and vital components have been identified as acceptable, the course is assigned to eLearning Ambassadors to formally evaluate the course using the CAP rubric. The course is assigned to a review cycle that falls within a particular time frame for all Ambassadors to complete the review.

How long does a QM@S review take to complete?

The QM@S Review Team has 12, one-week cycles during the Fall and Spring semesters and 8, one-week cycles during the Summer semester. The time it takes to complete a review has many factors that make it very difficult to anticipate a date. Each course review for varies and can take anywhere from two to eight hours to complete. It depends on the number of courses ahead of one in the queue and the number of courses that are already assigned. If your course is accepted for a review, it will be completed by the end of the last cycle of the semester or before.

If you need a course to go through QM@S certification process, it is recommended to plan at least one semester in advance of submitting for a QM@S review. If the course does not pass, you will need time to make corrections and try again. Ideally, you will submit your course for a QM@S review as soon as you complete designing the course.

I took the Teaching Online course a few years ago. Why am I having to take it again?

Southeastern Online places importance on keeping up with the most current theories and best practices in teaching. Therefore, the Teaching Online at Southeastern course is updated every year to reflect the most current teaching strategies. There are new technologies and updates to our current technologies that require additional training. The Distance Education policy states that this course must be completed by all faculty teaching or planning to teach using hybrid or online modalities. SACSCOC’s Distance Education and Correspondence Courses policy also requires the university to have faculty teaching online and hybrid courses complete a training specific for their needs.

You will only need to complete the Teaching Online at Southeastern course every three years. A new, updated version of the course is available each year in the Learning Management System, and you are welcome to complete it for the most up-to-date information. The course is set as a self-enrolled course in our LMS. Re-certification is only required every three years.  

I think my course is ready for review. What now?

If you have done a self-evaluation of the course using the QM@S rubric and feel it is ready, you can submit your course as soon as you would like to do so. You should get feedback from an Instructional Design Specialist at Southeastern Online. This can be done while teaching the course the first semester. At the beginning of your second semester teaching, you will submit the course to give yourself and the QM@S Review team time for the review.  We encourage faculty to design the course while following the rubric and earning a QM@S certification as soon as possible and we the team at Southeastern Online is here to help you through course development and design.

What happens if my course has not passed QM@S before and it is time to teach it again?

If your course has not earned certification by the end of the second semester being taught, you will teach the course face-to-face until a QM@S approval has been earned.