Salisbury University subscribes to Quality Matters (QM) as a commitment to quality assurance for online learning, which means that all faculty and staff can create a MyQM account to access QM resources. One of these QM resources is the option to complete a self-review of your course using the standards identified by QM for quality course design, supported by current research and recognized best practices.
Using the Self-Review tool, you can examine the different design components of an online course and begin to understand the best practices that create quality courses. The Self-Review tool allows you to confidentially evaluate your own course against the QM Rubric. Upon completion of a Self-Review, you have access to a Final Report that may be emailed to whomever you choose.
Please Note
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Step-by-step guide
- Go to MyQM.
- Create an account if you have not already done so by clicking the "No, I am new here" option to establish your account.
3. Once you are logged in, verify that you are in the Higher Education rubric menu (the should be the default space you open to if you if you registered your MyQM using your SU credentials).
There are multiple ways you can find the Self Reviews page. From the home Menu, you can expand the My Tools option and click on the the Course Review System link to be taken to the CRMS page, or you can click on either the Course Review Management System (CRMS) or My Custom Reviews (MyCR) icons from the top menu.
4. From either the CRMS or MyCR page, click the Start a Self-Review link.
5. Under Select a Rubric, your selection may default to the higher education rubric; if it does not, select the higher education rubric from the dropdown menu.
Note: QM is transitioning from the Sixth Edition rubric to the Seventh Edition Rubric on July 5, 2023.
6. Provide a title for the review to identify which course you are reviewing with the rubric. A specific name is recommended, such as Fall 2023 ENGL 103, so that you can identify the specific course you reviewed when returning to the QM after time has passed, or to distinguish between courses if conducting multiple self-reviews.
7. You will then have access to a review worksheet where you can work through each standard and determine if your course provides sufficient evidence of meeting each standard. You can work through the rubric through:
- The general review standards across the top of the rubric
- The specific standards for each general standard will be listed in a menu on the general standard main page.
- Each standard will be marked as either Met or Not Met upon review of the course. Having any evidence of the standard does not constitute a "Met" rating. Your evidence should suggest that you have met this standard at an 85% or above, otherwise, you should mark the specific standard as "Not Met". For example, if you have 10 videos in your course, and only 2 of them are accurately closed captioned, you would mark specific review standard 8.4 as "Not Met". If you have 10 videos in your course and 8 of them are accurately captioned, and 2 of them have auto-generated captions, you can mark specific review standard 8.4 as "Met" and make a note that updating the captions on the last 2 videos is a suggestion for impreovement.
- The annotation provides criteria about what evidence should be provided to mark each specific review standard as complete, including examples of what meets this criteria and what does not.
- The evidence response area is where you will identify the evidence that supports the standard being present in your course.
- The suggestions for improvement are is where you will identify ways you can include the standard in your course if it is missing altogether, identify areas where it could be added even if there is some evidence of it, and improve existing examples of meeting the standard even if the course meets the standard.
If you have questions about any of the standards, reach out to your Instructional Designer Liaison for additional support.
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