Peer review of courses is a well-established best practice at Indiana University. Robin Morgan, professor of psychology at IU Southeast, has long seen the benefits of the Quality Matters approach to peer review.

Having first achieved Quality Matters certification for one of her courses in 2017, she has since nurtured six additional courses through the review process.

“Using QM standards for designing my courses has led to less confusion for my students and more of their time being spent on learning course materials,” Morgan said. “QM provides the foundation for a well-designed course, allowing me to focus on higher-level interactions with my students and ensuring students are getting the highest-quality learning experience possible.

“Simply put, QM works.”

Quality Matters provides an internationally recognized framework for peer review of courses that is available to all Indiana University faculty teaching hybrid or online courses. Central to this framework is the rubric that facilitates conversation among faculty seeking Quality Matters certification and the review team. This conversation focuses on the following areas of online course design:

• Establishing a welcoming and supportive instructor presence.
• Ensuring regular and substantive interaction among faculty and students.
• Verifying that learning outcomes are measurable.
• Confirming alignment of instructional materials, learning activities and assessments.
• Ensuring that the course is accessible and usable for all learners.

Setting the Quality Matters approach apart from other standards-based review processes is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach.

Jennifer Hatfield. Photo provided by IU OnlineJennifer Hatfield, clinical associate professor of speech language pathology at IU South Bend, said that serving as a Quality Matters-certified peer reviewer has enhanced her approach to course design by broadening her perspective and deepening her awareness of potential blind spots.

“Despite my extensive background in instructional design and course review, evaluating a diverse range of courses has reinforced the importance of viewing a course through the lens of a first-time student,” Hatfield said.

“This process allows me to identify roadblocks that may not be immediately apparent when reviewing my own work, as familiarity with my design choices can obscure areas that may be unclear or challenging for students.”

She also praised the review process as a supportive and constructive way to gain valuable insights into potential challenges that students may face in a course — challenges they might not have been able to articulate in a course evaluation or that may not be immediately apparent to the instructor.

Morgan shares similar sentiments, noting that “QM certification takes time, a willingness to improve your course, and a collegial effort to enhance student learning and success.”

IU Online works with campus centers for teaching and learning to support faculty who seek to engage with Quality Matters. In addition to regular offerings of the foundational Applying the Quality Matters Rubric workshop by trained Quality Matters coordinators at each campus, IU Online provides access to Higher Education Peer Reviewer and Master Reviewer training for interested IU faculty and staff.

Quality Matters coordinators at each campus facilitate internal peer reviews of candidate courses and provide extensive hands-on support to faculty seeking Quality Matters-aligned peer review or official certification.

More than 150 courses have been Quality Matters certified at IU. Online and hybrid courses at all levels, undergraduate and graduate, and from an increasingly diverse range of disciplines have successfully gone through the collegial, faculty-driven review process, and the impact on student success is immeasurable.

The Quality Matters review process for interested faculty is as follows:

• Inform your campus center for teaching and learning.
• Complete a self-review using the Quality Matters Rubric, ensuring the course is aligned with standards, and submit the course for an internal review.
• Once feedback from the internal review has been addressed, the course is submitted for an official certification review, which will provide further feedback.
• After all feedback is addressed and certification is awarded, faculty can incorporate the Quality Matters Badge into the course.

For more information or questions, contact IU Online Assessment Support at iuoasmt@iu.edu.