A Newsletter for Faculty Teaching Online

In this Issue

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Welcome, and we are here to help you! For the faculty teaching online, the outstanding MTSU Online team will continue to help you reach your teaching goals and build your pedagogical expertise. Please do call us when you are thinking about instructional strategies, authentic assessment, and crafting learning objectives for your courses. We have a full menu of faculty services and resources on our website.

If you would like to know more about the breadth and depth of MTSU Online and online programs, here is a one-pager of “Quick Facts about MTSU Online”. 

As you may know, MTSU is switching to the Canvas LMS beginning Summer 2026, and you can read more about that in the article below. This large Canvas project has been a great opportunity to partner with our colleagues in the Information Technology Division, as we work together to help meet the teaching and learning needs of students, staff, and faculty. Vice Provost Brian Hinote in Academic Affairs and Vice President and CIO Yvette Clark in ITD are the executive champions for this project have assembled an implementation team and fostered an effective environment for collaboration to get this significant work done.

Speaking of partnerships, we are pleased to partner with our outstanding colleague Jennifer Vannatta-Hall, the Director of the new Center for Teaching and Mentoring, and you can read more about that partnership in an article below. You’ll see more about upcoming workshops and opportunities for faculty development in this newsletter.

In this issue, you can also learn more about our Quality Matters initiatives, exam proctoring software, and our recent student satisfaction survey. Thanks for reading, and we hope to assist you soon.

Trey Martindale, Professor and Associate Vice Provost for Online Learning, MTSU Online

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Switching to Canvas

MTSU is changing our learning management system (LMS). We are switching from D2L Brightspace to Canvas from Instructure. We will have a full Canvas implementation and use beginning in Summer 2026. A few intrepid “early adopter” faculty will use Canvas in Spring 2026.  Please visit the Canvas Transition Project website to see the full timeline, read the answers to frequent questions (FAQ), see a summary of why we switched, and learn what you can do to get started now, learning to use Canvas.  

Provost Mark Byrnes made this decision to change after an extensive and comprehensive review and evaluation of LMS features by a team of faculty, staff, and students. We appreciate all the efforts of people across campus in determining what best fits the needs of our students.

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Quality Matters

Quality Matters (QM) is the gold standard in online course and program development, design, and delivery. What are five reasons we use QM? 

1. Clarity and Confidence for Faculty – QM provides a clear, research-based framework for designing your online course, making the process less overwhelming.
2. Better Learning Experiences for students – QM’s standards ensure your course is organized, consistent, and accessible, helping students navigate your course with ease.
3. Academic Rigor with Student-Centered Design – QM encourages alignment between objectives, content, activities, and assessments so that everything students do in the course directly supports their success.
4. Institutional Credibility & Continuous Improvement – Courses that align with QM demonstrate a commitment to academic excellence, accessibility, and continuous quality improvement – key indicators for accreditation, retention, and reputation.
5. Support Every Step of the Way – QM isn’t extra work; it’s supported work with the help of an Instructional Designer trained in QM to guide you through each step.

If you want to learn more or find out how to participate in our updated quality assurance efforts, watch the two-minute video below and scan the QR code on the screen or in the QM Launch Infographic and fill out the form. You can also send questions to our QM Lead, Tara Perrin. 

• MTSU QM Launch Video (2:16)
• MTSU QM Official Launch Infographic w/ Links
• QM Website: qualitymatters.org
• QM Course: Elements of QM Course (free)
• QM Higher Ed. Standard Rubric 7th Ed.

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Online Student Satisfaction Survey Results

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Proctoring with ProctorU

We have fully transitioned from our former proctoring service, Examity, to ProctorU.

ProctorU is fully integrated into our learning management system, accessible through the navigation bar. If you have proctored activities in your online course, be sure the ProctorU link is in the course navigation bar so students can access this service. Visit our Proctoring Services webpage to learn more about proctoring options and resources. If you have any support information regarding Examity in your D2L courses or have the link included in the Navigation Bar of D2L, please remove it. If you have any questions, please contact our Assistant Coordinator of Student Services, Tonya Dowd.

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Ask & Engage (Drop-in Clinics)

Thank you to all those who have attended a drop-in clinic in previous semesters. We have renamed these workshops to Ask & Engage to better reflect the purpose and goals of the 90-minute meetings. Ask & Engage sessions are an opportunity for you to drop in and speak with one of our instructional designers. We are available for brainstorming, consultation, and troubleshooting. All Ask & Engage sessions are virtual and last 90 minutes. You do not need to register– just pop in. Here are the scheduled Ask & Engage workshops: 

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Webinars and Workshops

Quality Matters (QM) Workshops

SPRQ Workshops: Strategies, Practices, Resources, Quality 

MTSU Online offers SPRQ webinars and workshops to highlight Strategies, Practices, and Resources to support Quality in online teaching and learning. Sessions are led by experienced instructional designers available for course design consultation and brainstorming. This series is virtual, recorded, and posted on our MTSU Online YouTube Channel. We hope you will subscribe!

Register for any of these workshop sessions via the MTSU Online Calendar of Events.

Fall 25 SPRQS Workshops

Special Spotlight

Dr. Jennifer Vannatta-Hall, Center for Teaching and Mentoring

We are pleased to continue and strengthen our partnership with the newly named Center for Teaching & Mentoring (CTM). 

The CTM, which emerged in May 2025 by reimagining the former Learning, Teaching & Innovative Technologies Center, is under the capable direction of Dr. Jennifer Vannatta-Hall, a seasoned educator with more than 27 years of experience from K-12 to higher ed, including leadership roles as Assistant Director, Associate Director, and Interim Director in the School of Music.

 Dr. Vannatta-Hall brings energy and focus to faculty and staff development, teaching, and mentoring. Her leadership emphasizes strategic planning, campus-wide and community partnerships, evaluation of programs, and alignment with national trends in teaching and mentoring. With her at the helm, CTM is poised to amplify support for faculty, especially as we transition to Canvas and expand online teaching expertise. 

Through this partnership, MTSU Online will collaborate and participate with CTM’s renewed mission-shaping workshops, mentoring programs, and resources that equip online instructors with high-impact teaching strategies and innovative pedagogy. Together, we’re ready to elevate learning experiences and make teaching and learning more accessible, effective, and engaging for MTSU students. 

Through this partnership, MTSU Online and CTM will co-develop new workshops, faculty mentoring opportunities, and shared resources that promote innovative teaching practices. Our shared goal is to provide instructors with practical tools that enhance student learning and engagement. We’re enthusiastic about what this collaboration means for the future of teaching and mentoring at MTSU, and we look forward to celebrating the successes that come from working together. 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Middle Tennessee State University graduate student Ella Cobb and Trey Martindale, associate vice provost for online learning, know how beneficial online classes can be whether working on a bachelor’s or master’s degree.

After a record-breaking year in 2024, the two visited WKRN News 2 for the university’s “MTSU on 2” segment to discuss how students can be successful in online classes and how to build a community and relationships with professors and classmates.

Having received a Bachelor of Business Administration in marketing from MTSU in December, Cobb is no stranger to the university or online classes. Around half of the courses she took as an undergraduate were all online. Now, as a first-semester graduate student working on her MBA, most of the classes she is taking are online.

“In both online and in-person courses, I have made incredible relationships and connections here at MTSU with professors and students. While in-person courses can be a very impactful and meaningful learning experience, online courses can do the same,” Cobb said.

Since arriving at MTSU, Cobb has taken advantage of student opportunities even while taking classes online ranging from serving on the Blue Elite student team that gives campus tours to potential students to working with the university’s Marketing and Communications Division, where she works as a social media student worker.

“Through taking classes online and in-person at MTSU, I have met incredible professors and students. I have also had the opportunity to work on campus more with the flexibility online classes provide,” Cobb said. “It gives me a chance to do my homework and assignments on my own time, which has let me work MTSU events at any time through my MTSU social media job and tour guide job.”

MTSU’s online program saw record growth last fall, with 54% of students taking at least one MTSU Online course. Since 2016, the number of fully online programs offered has more than tripled to 74 in 2024.

Last fall, 545 unique online courses were introduced, with more expected soon.

“MTSU Online is not a separate institution from MTSU, and all our programs are the programs of MTSU’s departments, and all our faculty that are teaching are not separate online faculty,” Martindale said. “They are the regular faculty of MTSU. That’s a strategic decision on the part of our leadership — our president and provost.

“Our goal is not for the online programs to be as good as the face-to-face programs — our goal is for them to be better,” Martindale continued. “MTSU Online is a facilitator, so we really rely on their cooperation, and MTSU has been a great environment for collaboration.”

MTSU Online offers key student services for online students, such as counseling services, 24/7 live subject tutoring, library services and writing center tutors. It also offers many faculty services, including faculty development and training workshops and peer mentoring.

To learn more about MTSU Online and its programs, visit https://www.mtsu.edu/online/.

—   DeAnn Hays ([email protected])