Quality Matters (QM) is an internationally recognized quality assurance program for online and blended courses. From its initial beginning as a small group of faculty who wanted to assure quality in the developing world of online courses to its present-day status as a scalable quality assurance program, QM has always focused on being collegial, centered on research and best practice, collaborative, and focused on continuous improvement (see the Underlying Principles of Quality Matters (required)). Read more about QM's development here (optional).

Quality Matters has, over the last 15 years, developed and continued to update its Rubric that is annotated and based on research and best practices. The QM Rubric is now in its sixth edition as of 2018. The newest Rubric has 42 Specific Review Standards broken up into 8 General Standards. There are 23 Essential Standards worth 3 points each, 12 Very Important Standards worth 2 points each, and 7 Important Standards worth 1 point each for a total of 100 points (The Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric, 2018). “The QM Rubrics have been developed and regularly updated through a rigorous process that examines relevant research, data, and practitioner perspectives. They consist of Standards supported by detailed Annotations explaining the application of the Standards and are intended to support the continuous improvement of courses with constructive feedback provided by trained and certified Peer Reviewers using a specific review protocol” ("How to Reference," 2018). The resulting Rubric can be used to support course development, for self-assessment of a course, for QM professional development workshops, and official QM Certification reviews.

Quality Matters is clear that they only impact part of the quality of an online course - course design. However, QM has been doing research since 2005 on the impact of their professional development and course reviews on the quality of both online courses and face-to-face courses, as most respondents state that QM positively impacts their traditional teaching, too ("QM Impact Summary," 2018). They've also created a Bill of Rights for Online Students (optional) that emphasizes the impact of a well-designed course on student learning. Read more about the impact of implementing QM and QM research (optional).

The University System of Georgia's Board of Regents (USG BOR) is a system subscriber and each institution in the USG that renews their subscriptions are affiliates. We all share a full membership through the USG BOR. This full membership allows member institutions to use and share the QM Rubric amongst members, but not to non-members; gives us member rates on professional development, and access to subscriber-managed QM-Certified Course Reviews. The USG BOR also has an Improve Your Online Course (IYOC) license, which allows USG QM-Certified IYOC Instructors to provide IYOC workshop to affiliate members. There are several IYOC instructors in the system. Many individuals in the USG system are also certified to teach the Applying the QM Rubric course (APPQMR), another benefit of our full membership ("QM Overview," 2018). The benefit of these licenses (APPQMR and IYOC) is that QM-Certified instructors can offer online versions of the course for $25 per person instead of $200 for the APPQMR or $150 for the IYOC.

The USG BOR elected to become a QM subscriber because QM is internationally recognized as an effective benchmark for quality online courses, the Rubric provides ongoing professional development for faculty and instructional designers and a means for course reviews, and it was in line with strategic plans for the USG. The QM Rubric is based on progress, not perfection, and is based on research-supported best practices ("QM Overview," 2018). It is adaptable, credible, flexible, and provides a system that can be easily implemented in our current systems ("QM Overview," 2018).

Here is a list of the QM Specific Review Standards for Higher Education ("Standards from," 2018). As shown in the PDF, the eight General Review Standards are listed in the left-hand column and the Specific Review Standards are listed in the middle. The points are shown in the right-hand column. What is missing, and what is essential to the QM Rubric, are the extensive Annotations, which provide the research-driven best practices for applying each Specific Review Standard to the course being reviewed or developed (The Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric, 2018). The Annotations describe specific examples, places to look in the course, special situations, how the Standard could be applied for blended or competency-based courses, and other helpful information. The General Review Standards and the Specific Review Standards provide the structure for the Rubric, but the real value is in the Annotations.

For more information on how QM Standards are applied, how to provide helpful recommendations, and the QM Review Process, contact Amy Austin to access this course in GoView .