Project 2 FEA Tool

In 2012, Stanford University professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller were inspired by their experiences of having taught their Fall 2011 courses online. As a result, they left their positions at Stanford to launch Coursera. Princeton, Stanford, the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania were the first universities to offer content on the platform.

Coursera courses last approximately four to ten weeks, with one to two hours of video lectures a week. These courses also provide quizzes, weekly exercises, peer-graded assignments, and, sometimes, a final project or exam. Courses are also provided on-demand, in which case users can take their time in completing the course with all the material available at once.

As of February 2017, Coursera had 24 million registered users of its programs, and offered more than 2,000 online courses. Coursera is one example of an online educational platform, and there are tens of other examples which include university offered programs, not-for-profit organizations, for-profit organizations, and services provided by individuals.

Many reports estimated the number of students who took at least one of their classes online in 2014 by 18.7 million students, and it’s predicted that by 2019 at least 50% of all classes will be delivered online. Market value is to reach approximately $325 billion by 2025.

In such a competitive and fast emerging industry, the quality of online courses should be measured objectively, and designed/ redesigned accordingly.

Quality Matters (QM) is a not-for-profit organization serving the education community, from K-12 to higher education, and continuing and professional education. QM provides rubrics and standards, professional training, and peer-to-peer feedback for faculty in the continuous improvement of their course and certifies courses as meeting shared standards of best practice.

Quality Matters Rubric Standards can be used by online courses designers, instructors, observers, and students to evaluate the design aspect of online and blended courses, as well as to guide the design of online and blended courses. The Standards consist of five rubrics for online and blended courses: 1) Higher Education Rubric, 2) Higher Education Publisher Rubric, 3) K-12 Secondary Rubric, 4) K-12 Publisher Rubric, and 5) Continuous and Professional Rubric.

All five rubrics have the same eight general standards: 1) Course Overview and Introduction, 2) Learning Objectives (competencies), 3) Assessment and Measurement, 4) Resources and Materials, 5) Learner Engagement and activities, 6) Course Technology, 7) Learner Support, and 8) Accessibility and Usability. Within the eight standards, there are specific review standards that are assigned different points depending on their relative importance in supporting learning. For example, the Higher Education Rubric has 43 specific review standards. A quality course is understood to achieve a point score of 85% (with a "Yes" to all 3-point essential standards and 72 out of 99 or more points overall).

In the fall of 2003, Maryland Online, Inc. (MOL) commenced a three-year grant to develop and create inter-institutional quality assurance for online learning called the “Quality Matters” (QM) program. MOL outlined how the Quality Matters program could create a scalable process for course quality assurance, then applied for a Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Although the FIPSE grant ended after three years in 2006, QM continued to work within MOL and was used to impact the quality of teaching and learning at a state and national level.

In 2014, Quality Matters began operating as a standalone nonprofit organization through educational institution subscriptions and though a range of fee-based services that included both Quality Matters-managed course reviews and an array of trainings.

To keep the Rubric Standards up to date, QM revises relevant academic and practical research in relevant fields and updates the rubrics accordingly, every three years. As of today, April 2018, QM is preparing to publish the sixth edition of the standards.

The Quality Matters Rubric Standards consist of five rubrics for online and blended courses. Each standard is targeting specific areas and audiences. The Higher Education Rubric is for those who are designing courses for higher education. The Higher Education Publisher Rubric is for diverse higher education publisher products provided through Learning Management System (LMS). The K-12 Secondary Rubric is for those who design K-12 related materials. The K-12 Publisher Rubric is to be used by courses publishers for K-12. The Continuous and Professional Rubric is for those who design courses for professional development (PD).

The growing number of online and blended courses in K-12, higher education, and professional tracks makes more imperative the need for an objective method to manage and control the quality of these courses.

The purpose of the Quality Matters Rubric Standards is to help instructors, both course and content developers, and instructional designers to design quality online and blended courses while also evaluating current online and blended courses.

The Rubric Standards help designers of courses to align course goals, objectives, instructional strategies, and course activities. The Standards can also highlight areas for improvement with the ultimate goal of improving students’ learning outcomes.

It worth to mention that for any successful online course, there are many success factors. Quality Matters is only concerned with one of these factors - course design.

Advantages

1. An objective way to judge and improve the quality of online and blended courses.

2. QM certificates are becoming well-known and agreed upon. Some relevant jobs require them.

3. The QM organization provides flexible training courses (online training, on-site training, peer review, etc.) for professionals and continuous support reviews.

4. The growing community (+1,000 institution members from 48 US states and six different countries, +45,000 staff and trained course designers, +8500 certified members) is very active and willing to share both knowledge and experiences through conferences, seminars, publications, etc.

5. Quality Matters reviews and updates the Rubric Standards every three years to include new findings in ongoing research.

6. The Rubric Standards cover a wide span of educational settings: K-12, higher-Ed, and continual and professional learning.

7. The Rubric Standards emphasize usability and accessibility of contents and instructional materials.

1. Non-annotated Rubrics are available for free. However, fully annotated Rubrics are only available through paid subscription. The cost of subscription varies from $175/ year for individuals to $3,300/ year for K-12 and higher-Ed course providers/publishers.

2. The Rubric Standards only examine the design of the course; they do not evaluate content or implementation.