The Quality Matters rubric is made up of 8 General Standards and 42 Specific Review Standards used to evaluate the design of online and hybrid courses (and now remote courses as well since the pandemic). The rubric's scoring systems consists of 1-, 2-, and 3-point standards. For a course to meet QM standards and receive QM Certification, it must receive a score of 85% or above.
Within the 8 General Standards, there are three sub-categories of standards: essential, alignment, and specific.
Alignment Standards are 6 standards within the rubric that address alignment of course objectives, module/chapter objective, course materials, learning activities, assignments, and assessments. As with Essential Standards, these are 3 points each as well and must be met in addition to the overall score of 85% or above for a course to meet QM standards and receive QM certification. These alignment standards are important in that they assurance that these key components of the course are working in concert to make sure that the learner is being supported throughout the course with the correct materials, activities, assignments, and assessments to meet the module/chapter objectives, which in turn, should make them successful in meeting the overall course objectives.