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The Gold Standard

The Quality Matters rubric has evolved to basically be the 'Good Housekeeping Seal' for excellence in distance courses nationwide & internationally across all sectors of education.

"To achieve your goals for delivering quality online learning, you need everyone to agree on what the expectations are. You need trustworthy standards that foster objective feedback on course design. QM Rubrics and Standards were created to help course developers, teachers, faculty, entire organizations, and — most importantly — students. The General Standards and Specific Review Standards in each Rubric are intended to guide you through the development, evaluation, and improvement of your online and blended courses...."
-Quality Matters
https://www.qualitymatters.org/qa-resources/rubric-standards

But... Not One Size Fits All!

The Rubric has had such widespread uptake and adoption in part because it is not lock-step 'One Size Fits All'. For each of the 8 criteria, the focus is just on whether elements are *Somehow* present in some fashion. HOW that is done is wide open for faculty to apply best practices however best fits their unique teaching styles and subject areas.

Rubric's Research Underpinnings

The QM Rubric is not pulled out of thin air but is a distillation of the literature of online learning research. QM updates the Rubrics—typically every three years—to reflect new findings and innovations in practice.

"It’s not enough to look at only what’s been studied. Moving beyond what the research reveals, the QM Rubrics also incorporate best practices from those on the front lines: the course developers and instructors. When online courses are well-designed, organizations are more likely to see an increase in student engagement, learning, and overall satisfaction."
-Quality Matters
https://www.qualitymatters.org/qa-resources/rubric-standards

Certification

Quality Matters offers a formal external certification process to allow distance courses to be listed and branded as "Quality Matters Certified".

Note that the NCSC process is NOT that certification process.

However, if you or your department is interested in having this course externally QM Certified, let the Team know and we can offer guidance on that separate process.

Additionally, QM offers different levels of individual faculty certifications in using the QM rubric.

You may want to take a moment to go through the
The Quality Matters Rubric to get familiar with it