Use of Quality Matters Materials
This document describes permissible usage of selected Quality Matters (QM) materials most often
requested. It is not an exhaustive list of QM materials. If you have questions about the use of QM
materials not addressed here, please contact info@qualitymatters.org.
Use of Certification Marks
See QM Certification Mark Guidelines for QM Subscribers.
Use of QM Logo
Subscribers may use the QM logo (shown at the top of this document) to identify themselves as QM
Subscribers and to identify any training they are licensed to deliver. Any other uses must be approved by
Quality Matters. For more information about how the logo must appear, please refer to the QM Logo
Style Guide.
*Use of QM Standards Documents
The QM Standards documents show a list of the current QM Standards in each Rubric with the
associated point values. These documents provide transparency about the Standards that are part of the
QM Rubrics. The Standards are NOT the complete Rubrics. QM explicitly requires that any reference to
these documents does not suggest or imply that they are the QM Rubrics. Anyone, subscriber or not,
may provide the link to the QM Standards documents on the QM website.
Subscribers may post the QM Standards documents on their own websites and in their own internal
resource documents. The documents must display the MarylandOnline copyright information and may
not be altered in any way. Other use of the Standards documents requires specific permission from QM.
QM publishes a Standards document for each of its QM Rubrics. See below for links to the webpages.
• Standards from the QM Higher Education Rubric
• Standards from the QM K-12 Secondary Rubric
• Standards from the QM K-12 Publisher Rubric
• Standards from the QM Publisher Rubric
• Standards from the QM Continuing and Professional Education Rubric
*Please note: Access to the Standards documents requires you to Sign In using your MyQM account
credentials. If you do not have a MyQM account, please Create a MyQM Account to view content.
Printed copies of the Higher Education and K-12 Rubric brochures that include the QM Standards may
be ordered and purchased at a very modest cost through the QM website. Both the printed and online
versions of all these documents are under copyright protection by MarylandOnline, Inc.
08/19/16
©2016 MarylandOnline
1
Use of QM Rubrics (complete with Annotations)
The use of the QM Rubrics, which includes both the QM Standards and the detailed supporting
annotations, is restricted to QM subscribers. The QM Rubrics are proprietary to MarylandOnline, Inc.
and are provided under exclusive license to QM. In no case may the QM Rubrics be made available
publicly – whether on a subscriber site or in any publication.
Subscribers may make the QM Rubrics to which they subscribe available to their faculty and staff (i.e.,
institution employees only; this right does not extend to students) on their own password-protected
site. However, QM does not recommend this method of accessing the Rubric because changes, updates,
and advisories may be missed. QM makes its Rubrics available in more easily consumable and updated
ways through various access points in the QM software and through the QM Rubric Workbooks.
Use of QM Materials in Research
Quality Matters encourages rigorous study of the QM tools and processes. The validity of the QM
Rubric and Peer Review process is held in place by rigorously applied procedures as defined by QM. Any
adaptation beyond those validated parameters must be identified as such. No permission or support of
a research project is implied, or may be claimed, when using QM tools and processes for a research
project. In other words, QM does not grant permission to use the QM Rubrics for a research project.
Therefore, subscribers wishing to conduct research on the QM Rubrics, Standards, Peer Reviews, and
other elements of QM may do so with the awareness that all QM intellectual property is proprietary to
MarylandOnline, Inc. and provided to QM under exclusive license. Under no circumstance can any of
the QM Rubrics, complete with annotations, be copied, published, or made publicly available. QM
requests notification about pending, current, and past research in order to fulfill the terms of the QM
intellectual property license and to make the results, as appropriate, available on our research site.
Please contact research@qualitymatters.org to notify QM of such research.
Using the QM Rubric and Standards When Creating Research Survey Questions
1. Researchers can use the exact wording of cited QM Standards for survey questions. Additional
wording can include phrasing necessary to address the who, what, where, when, why, and how
context of a survey question. For example, “How important is it that instructions make clear how to
get started and where to find various course components?”
1.1. Must appropriately cite the source of any QM information along with the appropriate copyright
information. For example:
1.1.1. In-text references to QM information found on the QM website would cite the
specific QM Standards documents being used and would include the entire title to
avoid confusion with the complete QM Rubric with annotations. For example:
“Standards from the Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric, 5th Edition”
1.1.2. An end-of-text APA style citation would be “Standards from the Quality Matters
Higher Education Rubric, 5th Edition. Quality Matters. Retrieved from
https://www.qualitymatters.org/node/2305/download/QM%20Standards%20with%
20Point%20Values%20Fifth%20Edition.pdf”
08/19/16
©2016 MarylandOnline
2
1.2. Must include the following statement about the intended and supported use of the QM
Rubrics:
“The QM Rubrics have been developed and regularly updated through a rigorous process that examines
relevant research, data, and practitioner perspectives. They consist of Standards supported by detailed
Annotations explaining the application of the Standards and are intended to support the continuous
improvement of courses with constructive feedback provided by trained and certified Peer Reviewers
using a specific review protocol.”
2. Researchers adapting the QM Standards for survey questions by changing the wording beyond
adding who, what, where, when, why, and how to set the context of the survey questions need to
indicate that they are adapting questions from the QM Rubric (for example, creating survey
questions that capture a number of QM Standards into a new emphasis).
2.1. Must appropriately cite the source of any QM information used for adaptation along with the
appropriate copyright information.
2.1.1. In-text references to QM information found on the QM website would cite the
website as source. Specific reference to one of the QM Standards documents would
include the entire title to avoid confusion with the complete QM Rubric with
annotations. Example of in-text reference: “Adapted from Standards from the
Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric, 5th Edition”
2.1.2. Example of end-of-text APA style reference: “Standards from the Quality Matters
Higher Education Rubric, 5th Edition. Retrieved from
https://www.qualitymatters.org/node/2305/download/QM%20Standards%20with%
20Point%20Values%20Fifth%20Edition.pdf”
Using the QM Review Process in a Research Study
1. Only courses formally reviewed under the established and consistently applied QM peer review
process can be indicated as meeting or not meeting QM Standards. Two options are available for
the formal, official review of courses: QM or institution-managed.
1.1. The course to be reviewed is submitted to the institution’s QM Coordinator who initiates the
official QM peer-review process. A review team is assigned by the QM Coordinator. This team
includes three active, experienced online instructors who have further established credentials
through completion of specific QM professional development and are certified as QM peer
reviewers. At least one of the reviewers is external to the institution where the course offered,
and at least one of the reviewers must be a subject matter expert. The team is led by a QMCertified Master Reviewer who has additional training and review experience.
1.2. The official review team follows protocols that include obtaining course-specific survey data
from the course representative (the author/instructor of the course under review); pre- and
post-review conference calls among review team members; review of the course by each of the
08/19/16
©2016 MarylandOnline
3
reviewers over a designated time period; submission of scoring and recommendations into the
QM course review database; and presentation of a final report to the course representative.
2. Courses reviewed not using the official QM Peer Review process must be identified as adapting the
official QM Peer-Review process and cannot state or infer that a reviewed course officially meets
QM Standards.
2.1. Use of the QM Standards to informally review courses must be stated as such.
Use of QM Training Materials
Use of QM training materials is only provided under subscription license. Please refer to the relevant
subscription license for usage guidelines.
08/19/16
©2016 MarylandOnline
4