When purchasing online and blended courses, it is important for schools and districts to make sure that their funds are being spent on courses that meet accepted, national quality standards. QM Courses are the gold standard1.
Sample RFP Language (directed at providers):
The district is requesting courses that have been QM Certified [optional additional text: using X state standards]. Please provide the Certificate generated from a QM-Managed Course Review, as well as the Final Report for each course requested. For more information about QM Certified Reviews, visit the Course Reviews page on the Quality Matters website.
Procurement Details:
- Courses reviewed by QM are issued a QM Certification Mark. See the following example:
- Providers are provided with a detailed final report for each course reviewed by QM showing feedback from all reviewers on the team. See the following example:
- Courses reviewed by QM are issued a Certificate. Below is an example of a QM issued Certificate:
- Providers must submit links to state and/or other accepted standards (if they exist) to QM. These are used in the review in order to determine whether or not the course content, assignments and assessments are aligned to them. Make sure to ask that the course be reviewed against the content standards that apply to your specific situation.
About QM Managed Course Reviews:
Quality Matters promotes a peer review process and cultivates a database of trained QM K-12 Course Reviewers eligible for assignment to a course review team. Any teacher, school, district, or publisher can contract with Quality Matters to conduct an official QM-Managed review. Courses that successfully meet the QM Rubric Standards in an official course review are eligible for QM recognition and may carry the QM Certification Mark. K-12 course review teams are made up of three reviewers, where one is a Subject Matter Expert and one is a Master Reviewer. In the spirit of continuous improvement, courses that do not meet Standards upon first review are given a period of time in which they can make revisions based on the measurable feedback provided by reviewers. QM believes that all courses can eventually meet standards. Here is a link to view the K-12 Publisher Rubric Standards.
1 About Quality Matters (QM): Quality Matters is an international non-profit organization representing broad inter-institutional collaboration and a shared understanding of online course quality. QM's quality assurance processes and tools were developed to improve and certify the design of online and blended courses, and include rubrics with standards and annotations supported by research and best-practices, collaborative course reviews, and professional development.
