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 5.1.

General Standard 5 addresses course activities and learner interaction to meet the learning objective goals.

Click here to view Quality Matters Standard 5.1 in the Quality Matters Rubric.
This standard specifically addresses that learning activities promote the achievement of the stated learning objectives or competencies.

QM Standard 5.1 states: “Learning activities should align with the course and module objectives of the course”. The learning activities should actively
engage the learner with the course content. Learning activities are varied in order to provide reinforcement and mastery in multiple ways and to
accommodate multiple learning styles. Activities may include reading assignments, student presentations, science labs, class discussions, case studies,
role playing, simulation exercises, practice quizzes, tests, etc”

AP Guidance: Exams, of course, do a great job addressing the learning outcomes such as list, identify, define, etc. However, many of the outcomes such as
describe, explain, and create are not ones that can be measured via only multiple choice exams. Instructors should also consider including a paper,
project, or essay questions on the exam or as separate activities to promote the achievement of the higher-order learning objectives such as describe,
explain, and create. The following provides helpful information on this standard: http://facultyecommons.org/quality-matters-standard-5-review/ and you can also
refer to this guide: http://facultyecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/A_Guide_to_Quality_in_Online_Learning.pdf

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.