About Quality Matters
The Indiana University Office of Online Education maintains a system-wide license for Quality Matters (QM), an internationally recognized rubric of quality standards and process of quality assurance for online and blended courses. Based on research findings, best practices, and instructional design principles, QM uses a collegial, peer-based approach to continuous improvement in online and hybrid course design and student learning.
IU's QM license provides the seven IU-managed campuses access to:
- Faculty-centered continuous improvement models and networks for assuring the quality of online and hybrid courses through internal and external peer review
- Professional development workshops and certification courses for instructors, instructional designers, and other online learning professionals
- Rubric-driven benchmarks for applying quality standards to course design
- A self-review tool to guide early design and revision
The QM Higher Education Rubric provides a set of standards to guide faculty and instructional designers through the principles of quality online course design. Faculty may elect to have their courses undergo a rigorous, faculty-centered peer review process using the QM Rubric; courses which meet the standards are certified by QM and listed at QM-Recognized Courses.
At IU, the QM license enables campus teaching and learning centers to teach the foundational QM course, Applying the QM Rubric (APPQMR). This course includes training in QM principles for course design. In cooperation with the Office of Online Education, eLearning Design and Services and the campus teaching and learning centers continue to develop complementary ways of providing training in QM standards to faculty across IU.
Each campus teaching and learning center has a QM coordinator, who oversees the implementation of QM at that campus, and one or more QM facilitators, who are certified to provide training on the QM Rubric's standards. To learn more about QM, IU faculty should contact their campus teaching and learning center.