QM Self-Evaluation
You've been developing your course using the QM rubric all along, so a self-evaluation of your course should show that it meets standards now. You probably feel like you know your course like the back of your hand, but this exercise will be good opportunity to do a comprehensive self-evaluation of your own course using the rubric in preparation for a peer review. It should be noted that there is no allocation of assessment points for your self-review in this course. This is intended to be a mental exercise in which you evaluate the readiness of your course for a peer review. This exercise is absolutely essential before you submit any course for a "real" Quality Matters review.
QM Peer Review
After you complete your self-evaluation of your course, two of your peers will review your course and offer helpful feedback from an outsider's point of view. Your peers do not know your course well, and they will be looking at it from a student's point of view. Can your peer understand how to get started in the course? Are the instructions for each module, each assignment, and each assessment clear? Is the navigation through your course logical? Are all the components of a good online course present? Your peer reviewers will answer those questions and more through this assignment.
You will also be reviewing the courses two of your peers have created. Your grade on this assignment is not determined by the score or the comments your peers provide for you on the review of your course. Your grade on this assignment is determined by the quality of the comments you provide for your peers. You should make a comment (a brief comment is fine, but it must be explanatory) for each of the 41 standards on both of the reviews. Those comments should be collegial and constructive and should adhere to QM's five components of a helpful recommendation. If you need to, print those five components and keep them in front of you as you complete the review of your peer's course.
The peer review will be done in very much the same way as a QM peer review would be accomplished, but you'll have only two peers review your course whereas there would be three peer reviewers in an actual QM review.
