Project 2 FEA Tool
IDE 712 – Project #1 – QM Rubric Standards
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Overview |
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What is this? |
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Background |
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History of this tool. |
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Where does this come from? |
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Where does this apply? |
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Purpose |
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Why/Rationale (to be revised) |
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Assumptions |
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For whom |
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By whom |
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In what context |
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Advantages |
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Features and benefits |
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Disadvantages |
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What challenges must be addressed? |
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Upload: |
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Include your tool |
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Appendixes |
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General |
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APA formatting and referencing |
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Writing revision by SU Writing Center (WC) |
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Final updates and formatting |
The Name of the Tool: QM Rubrics and Standards
Overview: (What is this?)
In 2012, Stanford University professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller were inspired by their experiences offering their Stanford courses online in fall 2011, and soon after left 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 provide videos, 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 signed up for its programs and offered more than 2,000 online courses. Coursera is one example, and there are tens of other examples which include universities, not-for-profit organizations, for-profit organizations, and 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 its 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 competitive and fast emerging industry, online courses’ quality should be objectively measured, and to systematically be designed, redesigned, reviewed and evaluated.
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 review. The rubric standards can be used by online courses designers, instructors, observers, and students. They can be used to evaluate the design aspect of online and blended courses as well as guiding the design of online and blended courses.
The Standards consist of five rubrics for online and blended courses, which are: 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 the five rubrics have the same eight general standards which are: 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 which are assigned different points depending on their relative importance in supporting learning. For example, the Higher Education 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 or more points overall).
Background: (History of this tool, where does this come from? where does this apply?)
History of the tool
In Fall 2003, Maryland Online, Inc. commenced a three-year grant to create inter-institutional quality assurance for online learning. Quality Matters has generated widespread interest and received national recognition for its peer-based approach to quality assurance and continuous improvement in online education. This consortium continued as a self-supporting organization after the ending of the grant through educational institution subscriptions and a range of fee-based services including Quality Matters-managed course reviews and an array of trainings.
Where does this come from?
<…>
Where does this apply?
The Standards consist of five rubrics for online and blended courses. Each standard is targeting specific area and audiences. The Higher Education Rubric is for those who are designing courses for higher education. The Higher Education Publisher Rubric is for diverse 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 professionals.
Purpose (Why/Rationale)
The focus is on transparency and alignment in the course build, with clear connections between the course objectives and the learning design. This rubric also encourages plenty of interactions between the instructor and learners, learners and learners, and learners and the course contents.
This rubric aligns with federal accessibility standards. Critical course components should work together for an aligned learner experience.
Assumptions (For whom, By whom, In what context)
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Higher-Ed Rubric StandardsIntended for assessing quality and assisting the course design of online and blended courses for higher education. |
K-12 Secondary Rubric StandardsSpecifically tailored for assessing quality and assisting course design of middle school and high school online and blended courses. |
Continuing & Professional Ed Rubric StandardsTailored to assist in the design and evaluation of instructor-led, mentored, or self-managed online and blended courses that have pass/fail, skills-based or other completion/certification criteria, but do not carry academic credit. |
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Higher-Ed Publisher Rubric StandardsA set of quality design standards for diverse publisher products provided on Learning Management System (LMS) platforms. |
K-12 Publisher Rubric StandardsA set of standards to guide the review of online and blended publisher courses intended for use by K-12 schools and districts. |
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Advantages (Features and benefits)
1. Provides an objective way to judge the quality of online and blended courses
2. The focus is on the learners and how they can learn better
3. QM is becoming well known and agreed upon (some jobs asked for it!)
4. QM organization provides flexible training courses for professionals and support (online training, on-site training, peer review)
5. Growing community (+1,000 institution members from 48 US states and six different countries, +45,000 staff and course designers are trained, +8500 certified members)
6. An active community to share knowledge and experiences through conferences, seminars, sessions, publications, etc.
7. The Rubric Standards are reviewed and updated every three years to include new findings in ongoing research
8. Covers K-12, higher-Ed, and continual and professional learning
9. Great emphasis on usability and accessibility of the contents and instructional materials
Disadvantages (What challenges must be addressed?)
1. Non-annotated Rubrics are available for free. However, fully annotated Rubrics are available to paid subscription only. The cost of subscription varies from $175/year for individuals to $3300/year for K-12 and higher-Ed providers and publishers.
2. The Rubric standards don’t check quality of videos, images, sound, etc.
Upload: (Include your tool) A quality course is understood to achieve a point score of 85% (with a "Yes" to all 3-point essential standards and 72 or more points overall)
References:
https://www.qualitymatters.org/why-quality-matters/process
https://www.qualitymatters.org/qa-resources/rubric-standards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ayh-JC5XzRs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coursera
https://www.imodeducation.com/popularity-online-courses-e-learning-2016-based-trends-statistics/
http://elatewiki.org/index.php/Quality_Matters_Rubric
http://www.utoledo.edu/dl/faculty/qualitymatters.html
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