Please join OLITS in congratulating Professor Fred Bennett of USF St. Petersburg’s Bishop Center for Ethical Leadership! On April 10, 2019, his online course, Leadership Fundamentals (LDR 2010), received Quality Matters Certification.
Leadership Fundamentals is the introductory course for the Leadership Studies Program. In this course, Professor Bennett engages students with a broad range of leadership topics including self development, diversity, communications, conflict resolution, group roles, teamwork, decision-making, ethics, organizational design and change, and community building and renewal.
Professor Bennett shares the following advice with faculty preparing courses for QM review:
Follow the advice of those who are guiding you through the process, particularly our USF team. Keep an open mind about your course, and remember it is about the students.
It is a great thing to take ownership of your course and have pride in what you have built. However, that can come with some resistance to constructive commentary designed to improve the course. There were things I thought were wonderful about my course. However, looking at it through the eyes of another helped me to see the improvements I needed to make. Being open to change was helpful right up to the end.
I had a wonderful QM review team and the recommended changes they gave me to make it over the final hurdle really put the finishing polish on the course.
His course is now listed on the QM database of certified courses and will also be recognized in the Florida Virtual Campus public course catalog as a “High Quality” course.
If you are interested in preparing your course for Quality Matters review, contact Online Learning and Instructional Technology Services for more information.
