Seventy-five percent of Neumann University’s full-time faculty have earned certification to teach online.

The certification came from Quality Matters (QM), a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of online education and student learning.

“Certification through Quality Matters demonstrates a level of expertise in online education. Faculty receive training to improve the quality of their online course design. This training is based on current best practices in online teaching and rigorous, peer-reviewed research,” according to Dr. Alfred Mueller, Neumann’s Dean of Arts and Sciences,

Neumann has adopted a hybrid method of instruction for the fall, a blend of alternating in-person and online teaching that allows for personal interaction while following CDC-recommended social distancing guidelines.

Students who prefer to take classes completely online may choose that option.

Of Neumann’s 97 full-time faculty, 73 have achieved QM certification.

Mueller, who has worked with QM since 2013, is a certified facilitator of the basic training course, a program reviewer, and a master reviewer.

He was one of the first 40 people to be certified as program reviewers and one of the first four people to chair a program review in the United States.

While there are other training options for faculty, Mueller believes that QM provides the gold standard for online teaching.

“When a QM-certified faculty member teaches online, students know that they are going to be taking a course with clear expectations and guidance, content that serves a specific purpose, and activities that are engaging,” he explains.

Having faculty with QM certification, he notes, is an advantage during the coronavirus pandemic, when online learning is a critical component of academic instruction.

“Neumann students overall reported a positive experience in the sudden shift to virtual education in March 2020. One reason for that was the number of faculty who were already QM certified,” Mueller explained.

The information learned in the certificate training can reach beyond the virtual classroom. Mueller reports that many professors plan to incorporate what they have learned in the QM professional development process into their face-to-face teaching as well.

More than 1,300 colleges and universities subscribe to QM and over 52,000 educational professionals are certified.