Philippi, W.Va. – Three members of the Alderson Broaddus faculty/staff, Dr. Kayla McKinney, Mr. Nathan Fortney, and Dr. Andrea Bucklew, accepted an invitation to present at the Annual Quality Matters Regional Conference at Berkley College in New York City on April 20-21st.
Quality Matters is a professional organization comprised globally of over 1000 member schools from across higher education, K-12 education, and educational publishing houses. The mission of Quality Matters is to promote and improve the quality of online education and student learning though the use of a standard quality assurance rubric and a system of professional development.
McKinney, Fortney, and Bucklew’s presentation, titled “Grappling with the Grendel: How the QM Rubric Improves an Online & Traditional Early British Literature Course”, is one of four presentations accepted in the category of “Bending, Flipping, Extending: QM Beyond the Online Classroom” and will discuss how online learning methods and techniques can be applied in traditional face-to-face courses to enhance student learning. Other presenters in this same concentration include representatives from Quality Matters member schools, Virginia Tech, Rutgers University, and the University of Connecticut.
“Designing and teaching this course has shown me the possibilities for online education at Alderson Broaddus University,” said McKinney whose course is at the heart of the presentation. “I’m excited to present at the Quality Matters conference, as I’m sure our team of presenters will come home with many new ideas and methods that will help us to implement additional online courses.”
The conference, which is held annually, brings together educators and administrators from the northeast region of the United States to share, learn, and connect about the future of online education.
“Being asked to present at such a prestigious conference is a true testament to the quality of online education provided at Alderson Broaddus University” said, Associate Provost Dr. Bucklew.
Having Alderson Broaddus presenting alongside major universities from the Northeast speaks volumes about the hard work and dedication of the faculty and staff to the University.
“Since coming to AB in 2014, I’ve always been impressed by the willingness of the faculty to take on new challenges and embrace evolving ideas in higher education,” said Fortney. “Over that time we have more than quintupled the number of online courses we offer, and expanded to include our first online Master’s degree program.”
Fortney was referencing the newly announced Master’s of Education: Teacher Leader program that Alderson Broaddus introduced in October and is set to accept students in Fall of 2017. The program is 100 percent online with both full and part-time tracks.