Two of our affiliate organizations, Quality Matters and Online Learning Consortium (formerly The Sloan Consortium), have updated their Higher Education Rubric and Quality Scorecard. In light of these changes, we have updated our quality rubric that we use to review our partners’ courses. Please see a review of the changes below.

Quality Matters

In August, Quality Matter released the Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric, Fifth Edition, 2014. The Rubric Committee, a group of online learning experts, spent nearly a year reviewing the latest research in order to provide an updated rubric for their subscribers.

The Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric, Fifth Edition, 2014 is a set of 8 general standards and 43 specific standards used to evaluate the design of online and blended courses. The Rubric is complete with annotations that explain the application of the standards and the relationship among them. A scoring system and set of online tools facilitate the evaluation by a team of reviewers.

Unique to the Rubric is the concept of alignment. This occurs when critical course components – Learning Objectives (2), Assessment and Measurement (3), Instructional Materials (4), Course Activities and Learner Interaction (5), and Course Technology (6) – work together to ensure students achieve desired learning outcomes. Specific standards included in Alignment are indicated in the Rubric annotations.

Click here for more information about the Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric, Fifth Edition, 2014.

Online Learning Consortium

Yesterday, Online Learning Consortium released the Quality Scorecard 2014: Criteria for Excellence in the Administration of Online Programs. After 3 years of user study and feedback, the 2014 Quality Scorecard now has more indicators (75), a higher score potential and includes a scoring rubric in the updated handbook.

Upgrades to the interactive Scorecard provide clarity and eliminate redundancy, along with making the tool more robust and easier to use. Improvements include the ability to add co-authors for collaboration and a cleaner interface. The Quality Scorecard now includes indicators which address budget, including financial and people resources, plus unlimited file uploads for supporting documents.

Click here for more information about the Quality Scorecard 2014: Criteria for Excellence in the Administration of Online Programs.