Bethanne Tobey Earns Quality Matters Award
Assistant Director of Course Quality Bethanne Tobey earned the Quality Matters Making a Difference for Students: Outstanding Impact by an Individual in Higher Education Award presented Tuesday, Oct. 27 at the QM ConnectLX online conference.
Quality Matters (QM) is a globally recognized organization leading the way in quality assurance in online and innovative digital teaching and learning environments. Each year, QM recognizes individuals and groups that exemplify QM’s focus on student success through the implementation of QM standards, practices and processes.
Tobey received the Outstanding Impact by an Individual in Higher Education award for her significant contributions to students’ success and experience through instructional design, faculty professional development and many other initiatives.
More specifically, Tobey organized and led the efforts to implement the Course Quality Program at NC State. She continually strives to enhance the expectations of course quality and instructor training.
“Bethanne’s vision and leadership for Quality Matters at NC State has had a huge positive impact on students, faculty, staff, and our culture of online education,” says Lead Instructional Designer Rebecca Sanchez — Tobey’s colleague and fellow Course Quality Program team member.
In spring 2018, Tobey launched the pilot program for the university’s first official Quality Matters-focused training initiative called the Online Course Improvement Program (OC
IP). The pilot program proved to be successful resulting in six QM-certified courses and paved the way for future OCIP iterations and cohorts.
Since the pilot program, Tobey and the Course Quality team have facilitated five additional OCIP cohorts resulting in a total of 27 QM-certified courses at NC State to date.
In the fall of 2019, Tobey led the initiatives to expand the Course Quality Program to include multiple pathways for faculty to improve their online and blended courses. This expansion included adding a QM Essentials Pathway and a QM Peer Reviewer Pathway and reorganizing OCIP to be part of the QM Course Certification Pathway.
Tobey has been an advocate for faculty throughout the process, ensuring each faculty member is recognized and applauded for their efforts.
Tobey’s leadership and passion for faculty and student success have positioned the Course Quality Program to impact online and distance education courses for many years to come.
Congratulations, Bethanne!
