There are a few important things to remember as your are completing your self-evaluation and your peer review:
- Use the Self-Review system on the Quality Matters website. See the video below for instructions on how to use this system.
- Refer to the annotations for each standard as you decide whether a standard is met or not met.
- The course does not need to be perfect with regard to any single standard to meet that standard. If it meets the standard at the 85% level, then it meets the standard.
- Remember that partial points are not an option. For example, if a standard has a point value of 3 points, the course will earn 3 points if the standard is met and 0 points if the standard is not met. It is an all-or-nothing situation for each standard.
- A course meets standards overall if it earns at least 81 points out of the possible 95 points (85% of 95 = 81) and meets all essential (3-point) standards. The QM system figures this out for you automatically, but I want you to know the parameters it is using.
- Type a comment for each standard. A brief comment is okay, especially if there is not much to say about a standard, but it is important to tell the course designer what is working in the course and what could be improved. Use the five compoonents of a helpful recommendation! Your grade on this assignment will be heavily dependent on how your comments follow those recommendations.
- Your grade (and your peer's grade) is not dependent on whether the course meets standards or the number of points the course earns. It is dependent on the quality of the comments in your recommendations to your peers. Note that you will receive two scores out of a possible 95 points for each of the reviews you perform. You will earn the point value of each standard for each comment you make, and your score for each comment is dependent on the quality of your feedback to your peer.
- Complete two separate peer reviews (one for each peer) in the QM Self-Review system and email a copy to the appropriate peer and to yourself. Upload both copies of your peer reviews to the Carmen Dropbox for assessment.
The Five Components of a Helpful Recommendation (from Quality Matters, Applying the QM Rubric, 2012):
- Constructive: Try to offer solutions, not just identify problems.
- Specific: Include a specific example of what is being recommended.
- Measurable: Suggest ways that the instructor or instructional designer will know a recommendation has been implemented.
- Sensitive: Keep recommendations and comments on a positive note. Avoid the use of negative language.
- Balanced: Point out strengths as well as weaknesses
Proceed to the next page for an overview of how to use the QM Self-Review System.
