Take advantage of our OLC, QM, & UPCEA memberships

UIC faculty and staff have access to a variety of robust professional development resources, a few of which include memberships with the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), Quality Matters (QM), and the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA). See below for more details on offerings within each and how to sign up for access.

Online Learning Consortium (OLC)

The U of I System is a member of OLC. Instructors at all three universities have free access to OLC resources related to digital learning and online teaching, which could be especially helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic. With discounted workshop offerings like “Strategies for Facilitating Live, Online Sessions and Fundamentals: Giving Effective Feedback,” faculty can continue to hone their remote and fully online teaching skills with guidance from expert online faculty and instructional designers.

Other OLC professional development resources include discounted access to the following: their Mastery Series program tracks, which include Instructional Design, Quality Scorecard, Leadership in Online Learning, Online Science Labs, and Online Nursing; their Online Teaching Certificate Programs, which include Online Teaching and Advanced Online Teaching; and their annual conferences, Innovate and Accelerate.

OLC also offers a number of free resources, like webinars, white papers, and OLC Ideate–a series of virtual sessions born out of the pandemic.

Please register for a free OLC account using your UIC email address and enjoy the benefits of the U of I system membership.

Quality Matters (QM)

QM is a global organization leading quality assurance in online and innovative digital teaching and learning environments. To help instructors improve the quality of online instruction, a need made especially relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic, QM provides research-supported and practitioner-reviewed tools and professional development resources appropriate for higher education.

To help you in planning your Spring 2021 courses, consider checking out the free QM Higher Education Course Design Rubric, which emphasizes eight areas of importance in the remote or online learning environment: Course Overview and Introduction, Learning Objectives (Competencies), Assessment and Measurement, Instructional Materials, Learning Activities and Learner Interaction, Course Technology, Learner Support, and Accessibility and Usability. Faculty would be well served to include all of these elements in their courses, as they are universally accepted best practices in online course design and quality.

Other QM resources include discounted workshops, like Applying the QM Rubric, as well free resources like white papers and webinars.

To get started, sign up for a free account using this link: How do I create a MyQM account?. UIC’s membership is for QM Higher Education, and you will have access to the above-mentioned QM Higher Education Rubric upon sign-up.

The University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA)

UPCEA supports professional, continuing, and online education by offering members a variety of free professional development opportunities and helpful resources, including innovative conferences and specialty seminars, research and benchmarking information, professional networking opportunities, and timely publications.

This online resource also supports active conversations among practitioners and professionals in online education. Faculty may find value in participating in the UPCEA CORe Open Forum, which has roughly 10,000 participants across a number of institutions.

There is also a diverse resource library with archived materials available to members at no cost.

View the UPCEA Owner’s Manual for more information on creating an account and getting the most out of your membership.

Need more information or have questions?

For more information or questions about any of the above, please contact Sam Day, Instructional Designer with UIC Extended Campus, at samday@uic.edu.