Grades 6-12 Quality Matters Rubric

                The Quality Matters Program has been setting quality assurance standards for college/adult level online courses for some time, but has branched into K-12 online education.  Per the QM website, “Built on research literature and published best practices, the award-winning Quality Matters Program provides a process to ensure quality in online courses through the use of The Grades 6-12 Rubric, course reviews and professional development opportunities for teachers and instructional designers.” http://www.qmprogram.org/grades-6-12

                I took a few courses to become a QM peer reviewer and learned a great deal – and now have a number of changes I want to make in my own courses this summer.  QM focuses on course design – including communications, learning objectives, assessment, instructional materials, interaction between teacher-student/ student-student/ student-course materials, and accessibility.  The QM standards are concrete and measurable, which is helpful when trying to see if your course meets the standards.  Perhaps even more important, the standards are based on research and best practices, rather than plucked out of the air, so they are worth following. 

                The web-based G6-12 Rubric can be used for both blended/hybrid and fully online courses.  Evaluating your own course using these standards is possible (see Improving Your Online course http://www.qmprogram.org/k-12-professional-development-and-trainings ), or your institution can be a QM member. 
               
                The review process is rigorous and thorough – and reminded me of an accreditation review.  If you’ve ever served on an accreditation team or had your institution reviewed for accreditation, you know how useful such a review process can be. 

                Definitely a resource to look into.

Raising the bar

    This year I’ve been teaching our high school 1-semester Technology course for the first time (though I’ve taught middle schoolers technology for a decade). 

    One thing has been apparent both semesters – it’s time to raise the bar.  Our technology requirement is seriously out of date; we require students to be able to demonstrate that they can keyboard at a reasonable speed (25 wpm with no errors), and can competently use Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.

    Here’s the thing:  students come into class already capable users of Word and PowerPoint, and usually able to pass the typing test without practice.  Only Excel gives them problems. 

But there are so many other critical skills my students need, including:

·    evaluating websites and internet information for validity (a gaping skill deficit here) 
·    evaluating their digital footprints and online safety
·    finding and figuring out how to use free internet tools
·    avoiding plagiarism online
·    collaborating with others using technology.

    If we require that students have technology skills to graduate, shouldn't these skills be included?  I teach all these skills, usually in a cross-disciplinary framework.  But how should I assess them?  Since these aren't part of the formal requirement, my assessments here have been formative - lots of practice and feedback.


    It’s easy to do a summative assessment of whether a student knows how to use Word or Excel; I give them a task and see how well they accomplish it.  Either they’ve shown me they know how to bold text or use a header, or they haven’t.  

    But these newer skills are based on judgment, so inevitably the assessments I use are about judgment.  So how do I assess these skills?   

    Rubrics, here I come.