Over the past year, the Quality Matters Program and the Florida Virtual School have collaborated on adapting the QM Rubric for online course design to the needs of middle and high school courses. This session will describe the collaborative process and the outlines of the new rubric.

1. Adapting the Quality Matters Rubric to Middle and High School Courses Ron Legon, Executive DirectorThe Quality Matters Program Stacey Rimmerman, Department Chair,Educational Technology, Grand Canyon Universityformerly Research, Quality & Evaluation Manager,The Florida Virtual School Sloan-C International Conference October 2009

3. Since 2006 Quality Matters is a not-for-profit subscription service providing tools & training for quality assurance of online courses

4. Adopted by a large and broad user base

6. 41 states represented

7. 12 statewide systems; 5 large consortia

8. 5000+ faculty and instructional design staff have been formally trained

11. A peer review process (faculty to faculty) for reviewing and improving online and hybrid courses

12. A faculty support tool used by instructional development staff

14. The Florida Virtual School www.flvs.net Founded in 1997 and was the country’s first, state-wide Internet-based public high school An established leader in developing and providing virtual K-12 education solutions Serves students all over Florida, the U.S. and the world Nationally recognized e-Learning model and recipient of numerous awards

15. Process to Develop a Rubric for K-12 Course Design Joint steering committee established Fit / Gap analysis of current QM Rubric 3 FLVS courses reviewed by two joint teams Majority of standards fit middle and high school Some critical issues in K-12 were not addressed Annotations did not speak to K-12 Decision to move ahead with Grades 6-12 Rubric Joint working group appointed 7 month process to perfect the new rubric Beta testing in November/December 2009 Release of Grades 6-12 Rubric in early 2010

16. Contextual Differences between QM’s Postsecondary Rubric and Grades 6-12 Rubric The role of stakeholders – parents, counselors, host schools, etc. Increased privacy concerns Increased communication outside of CMS – before, during and after The role of state standards, national standards, AP standards, NACOL and 21st Century Skills Examples of good practice made more relevant to grades 6-12 K-12 terminology replaces postsecondary terminology, e.g., “teachers” not “instructors”

17. New Standards Course objectives must meet state standards Course content is appropriate to students’ reading level Instructional materials prepare students to meet local, state and national standards Course content is balanced and bias free Total Points increased to 100 with 85 needed to meet standards

18. Increased Emphasis on Specific Standards for K-12 Etiquette Academic Integrity Self-Check Teacher Responsiveness Student Access to Technologies Text Alternatives to Auditory and Visual Content

19. Expanded Data Collection Communications Matrix Students Parents Counselors Local Schools Communications Portfolio Samples of all communications

20. Practical Applications of the Rubric

21. Your Questions? rlegon@qualitymatters.org srimmerman@gcu.edu