The Quality Assurance Faculty Toolbox is your resource for professional development and continuous improvement of online/blended instructional content. Faculty are encouraged to familiarize themselves with each of the resources provided. Each tool was selected in consideration of positive outcomes to impact student success.
Atomic Learning contains a collection of ADA training modules titled A&M-Commerce Accessibility Course. The modules include instructions for making Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and other content items accessible for all students. Additionally, a custom, self-paced resource course, myLeo Online Orientation, was created for you. Learn about our new learning management system (LMS).
Note: All full-time faculty have individual accounts to Atomic Learning. Based on a limited number of accounts, access to Atomic Learning for adjunct faculty and GAs is available at the AT Faculty Lab (within the Office of Academic Technology, Gee Library, Suite 173). Please do not circulate the attached document or the link and login information outside of the university.
For questions and instructions for access, contact online@tamuc.edu.
Resource: Atomic Learning Access Instructions (PDF)
This checklist is provided for your convenience. It will help faculty identify common practices that allow for accessibility. Additional information and assistance is available through the AT Accessibility Lead, Petra.Strassberg@tamuc.edu.
Link: EIR Checklist for Online and Blended Courses
The QM Rubric has been customized for A&M-Commerce faculty to only review the 21 Essential Standards for online and blended courses. Each standard contains Annotation with information and examples of best practice for quality instruction and course design. Faculty can conduct their own custom review for insight on areas for continuous improvement. This link will provide instructions for accessing the Custom QM Review.
Resource: Listing of 21 Essential Standards for Custom Rubric (PDF, Requires Active Directory Login, Institutional Use Only)
Resource: Custom QM Review Instructions (PDF)
Resource: QM Non-Annotated Standards (PDF)
Course Preparation: It is recommended to remove any unwanted or unused content and organize the remaining content in your courses, which will be migrated to D2L Brightspace. It is also recommended to save all course content from your archived courses, which will not be migrated, possibly saving your content using the university share drive, an external hard drive, and/or a thumb drive.
If you need help "packing" your courses, come to the eCollege Packing Party, which is an open, relaxed, self-paced lab with music, food, goodies, and AT staff support.
Resource: eCollege Course Packing Tips (pdf)
The D2L Migration consists of 4 steps for faculty. Faculty with online and blended courses in eCollege to be moved to D2L can begin with Step 1 now.
Link: Faculty Migration Steps
Syllabus Template (doc) : The syllabus template has been provided for your convenience. It includes updates on university procedures and rules.
Syllabus Interactive Checklist (doc): The Syllabus checklist includes necessary communications to students on course and university procedures and rules.
Instructor Information
VPAT stands for Voluntary Product Accessibility Template. According to the Federal government’s section 508 site, it is “A template for documenting a product or services conformance with accessibility standards.”
eText publishers and other 3rd party vendors should provide faculty with a copy or link to their product’s VPAT. If you are using an e-book from a publisher/vendor such as Cengage, Pearson, McGraw Hill, request your vendor rep send you a link to the VPAT. Please also request this information from the vendor if you use a 3rd party platform such as myLabs.
Faculty members do not need to review the VPAT documentation. Just request it from the publisher and include it on the NOVA migration request form in the appropriate field when you request a course to be migrated. Below is an image of the appropriate field on the request form.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) may be found here.
Questions regarding the migration process or the steps provided may contact ProjectNova@tamuc.edu or call the Office of Academic Technology at 903-886-5511.
