Examine Course Design Through the Eyes of a Learner

A well-designed course is more likely to engage learners and positively affect their performance. Using the QM Rubric and relevant review tools as a guide, you, your colleagues, or a team of QM-trained, experienced online instructors can evaluate the design of your online or blended course and ensure it meets QM Standards. When you’re ready to put a course through the review process, you’ll receive fresh ideas from colleagues who are interested in your course and can offer specific feedback in a positive tone that will help you to improve the quality of your course and create a more active learning experience for students.

Key Elements of Any Course Review

There are a few factors that will affect the structure of your course review process: the QM Rubric you select, the type of course you want to evaluate, and the type of review you want to conduct. For example, the members of a course review team will be different between a K-12 organization and an Higher Education (HE) organization. And an individual, Self-Review will not be structured the same as a collaborative review. While some subscriptions allow members to manage their own Official Course Reviews, publishers — and many other members — will work with QM to have courses officially reviewed. Regardless of the review, however, the following elements are always part of the process:

  1. Online or blended course to be reviewed: Access must be granted to those reviewing
  2. Rubric: One of the five QM Rubrics or a custom rubric created in My Custom Reviews (MyCR)
  3. Review System: Tools located in the QM Course Review Management System (CRMS) or MyCR
  4. Reviewer(s): Number and role depends on the type of review being conducted. Official Review Team consist of QM-Certified Reviewers, one of whom is a Master Reviewer serving as Team Chair
  5. Final Report: An aggregation of reviewer findings 

Choose the Course Review Type That’s Right for You

QM Higher Ed. certification bug

HIGHER ED. OFFICIAL COURSE REVIEWS

Institution and Publisher courses can receive QM Certification by meeting QM Standards in an Official Review with certified reviewers.

QM K-12 certification bug

K-12 OFFICIAL COURSE REVIEWS

School, District and Publisher courses can receive QM Certification by meeting QM Standards in an Official Review with certified reviewers.

QM CPE certification bug

CONTINUING & PROFESSIONAL ED. OFFICIAL COURSE REVIEWS

Non-academic credit courses can receive QM Certification by meeting QM Standards in an Official Review with certified reviewers.

QM recertification bug

RECERTIFICATION

Courses need to be recertified periodically. Keep QM Certification current with QM Standards and course revisions through a Recertification Review

QM prep and internal reviews bug

INTERNAL & PREPARATORY REVIEWS

Get an understanding of the course review process, Rubric options and possible course improvements. Use Internal and Preparatory Reviews for benchmarking and tracking improvements.

QM self review bug

SELF REVIEW

Become familiar with Rubric Standards and use them to evaluate your own course. No review team needed. A Self Review is an important part of the continuous improvement journey.


Course Review FAQs

Course Review Resources