HHP courses certified by Quality Matters
East Carolina University students provided feedback and are benefiting from three College of Health and Human Performance courses — Kinesiology 1000, Health 1000 and Cognitive and Psychosocial Interventions in Recreational Therapy (RCTX 4263) — that recently received the Quality Matters Certification Mark following a course review process.
As noted by Quality Matters, the review process is focused on examining critical course components related to the learner experience and ultimately learning success.
KINE 1000 and HLTH 1000 both are required courses for ECU students in order to graduate. RCTX 4263 is a core class in the recreational therapy program.
For Amber McEachern, teaching instructor and lifetime physical activity and fitness program coordinator, the Quality Matters review for KINE 1000 included many conversations with students and instructors, and ultimately an expansion of access to online sections of the course. Data already has shown versatility in the course has led to students enjoying expanded options, depending on their preference for online or individualized opportunities, or group settings at the Eakin Student Recreation Center.
“It’s special to know we are redesigning something that is required for all students, but it’s going to benefit them because it’s made for the students and by the students, in a sense,” McEachern said. “It was taking their feedback and knowing that this is what they want out of this course or this is what they want away from the course, to make it more enjoyable. … We want to make sure they are comfortable and can do these things in the setting that is best for them.”
Students in a health class. (ECU News file photo)
The Quality Matters Certification Mark is the internationally recognized symbol of online and blended course design quality, representing ongoing commitment to creating learning environments that provide learners with a clear pathway to success. Reviews are conducted by QM-certified reviewers and use the Quality Matters rubric and associated standards, which are based on research and best practices. A course earns the QM Certification Mark once it meets QM rubric standards at the 85% threshold or better and meets all essential standards.
Senior teaching instructor Wendy Whisner led the process for RCTX 4263, in the Department of Recreation Sciences, to earn Quality Matters certification.
HLTH 1000 is part of the Department of Health Education and Promotion, and the Quality Matters review process was led by teaching instructor Brian Cavanaugh. HEP department chair Michele Wallen highlighted the course received a perfect score on all 42 specific review standards and eight general standards in the final evaluation.
Cavanaugh was assisted by graduate teaching assistants, Laura Brady and Ashlyn Poythress, and he also credited the ECU Office of Faculty Excellence for its role in Quality Matters training and course redesign.
“An online version of HTLH 1000 received QM certification, which is limited to a few sections each academic year. However, I was able to build another shell tailored for our hybrid sections based on the QM-certified course, so all sections offered were positively impacted by the process,” Cavanaugh said. “HLTH 1000 is intended to empower students with the awareness and skills needed to make informed decisions about their health and health-related behaviors, and ultimately leave the course a better version of themselves. The QM process really called us to question what we say we do with what we actually do, and how we do it. It helped us better align our program outcome objectives and course objectives with the instructional resources, learning activities and assignments.”
In Kinesiology, the Quality Matters influence is helping in a long-term approach to physical activity and fitness options and benefits.
“This course will teach you that once you leave your prime of (age) 18 or 19 or 20, you can continue this and keep it going,” McEachern said. “That’s a motto we are trying to put out with this new influence of the course. We also can now get more activity courses for students to take after (KINE 1000). They can take a swimming or bowling or pickleball as a way to keep that activity going, so we are learning through Quality Matters and this class and able to build those specific activity courses around it.”