It’s Quality Matters Monday! Each Monday, we highlight a Quality Matters standard and review its importance in an online course and how we evaluate this standard.

Today, we are reviewing Quality Matters Standards 3.5.

General Standard 3 addresses the inclusion of assessments that evaluate learner progress in achieving the stated learning objectives or mastering the competencies.

Click here to view Quality Matters Standard 3.5 in the Quality Matters Rubric. This standard specifically addresses the inclusion of various opportunities for students to track their learning progress.

There are many different ways for students to track their progress and many of them are very simple and do not require a lot of time from the instructor. While direct instructor feedback on assignments is one way to track progress, instructors can also include automatic feedback built into assessments and assignments and peer feedback.

Some examples of these opportunities are:

1. Writing assignments that allow for the submission of a draft for instructor comment and suggestions for improvement
2. Self-mastery tests that include informative feedback with each answer choice
3. Interactive games and simulations that have feedback built in
4. Self-scoring practice quizzes
5. Practice written assignments
6. Peer reviews and critiques
7. Model papers or essays provided for learners’ viewing
8. Sample answers or answer keys provided for learners’ viewing
9. Portfolios with a self-evaluation component, journals, and reflection papers

One of our favorite ways to provide feedback is to include self-assessments throughout each module. In our demo course, BUSN 7000 Start-Ups: Venturing Into Entrepreneurship, you can find self-assessments for readings, lectures, and quizzes at the end of each module…all for the purpose to help students track their progress.

Click here to access Quality Matters eLearning Marketplace. The Quality Matters eLearning Marketplace is a free, searchable database built to serve the broad QM community with an easy-to-use eLearning product/service directory organized within the 8 general standards of the rubric as well as by user and product categories.