Quality Matters (QM), an international organization focused on quality assurance of online courses, has signed on to be a Project Contributor for the Research Clearinghouse for K-12 Blended and Online Learning, a resource that currently holds over 675 resources for the field.
The Research Clearinghouse is a collaborative effort led by the Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute™ (MVLRI™), a division of Michigan Virtual®, and the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) to provide a repository of references to research articles and other publications from the field of K-12 online and blended learning. This project has been made possible by generous financial support from Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) and in-kind support from iNACOL and Michigan Virtual®.
“We are excited about adding Quality Matters as a project contributor to the Research Clearinghouse,” Jamey Fitzpatrick, Michigan Virtual President & CEO, said. “They play a very important role in helping to promote continuous improvement in online learning.”
As a project contributor, Quality Matters will regularly submit references to keep the Research Clearinghouse up-to-date with the latest in research in the field. Quality Matters also has a Resource Library to which MVLRI will help contribute. Quality Matters’ main focus will be to build the Clearinghouse’s capacity for instructional design studies. The keyword “QM” will be added to the Clearinghouse, and those sources labeled as such will be references contributed by Quality Matters and its affiliate members.
“Quality Matters is pleased to contribute to the Research Clearinghouse for K-12 Blended & Online Learning,” says Dr. Kay Shattuck, QM’s Director of Research. “Research is at the heart of Quality Matters, which is one reason why we have a group of Research Colleagues who regularly review the research literature on blended and online learning. Effective practices, identified pedagogical themes and instructional design principles support our second edition of the K-12 Secondary Rubric. We continue to find more references related to the K-12 level of education and are glad to be able to share these as widely as possible.” Shattuck continued, “In the spirit of collaboration we are pleased that there will be a mutual exchange of research finds around course design quality.”
For more information about your organization becoming a Project Contributor, see the Project Contributor Guidelines (http://k12onlineresearch.org/templates/PDF/contributorguide.pdf) and/or contact Kathryn Kennedy, MVLRI, Senior Researcher, at [email protected].
About Michigan Virtual
Michigan Virtual® is a private, nonprofit Michigan corporation established by the State of Michigan in 1998 to serve as a champion for online learning. It is the parent organization of the Michigan Virtual®, Michigan LearnPort®, and Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute™.
About Quality Matters
Quality Matters is a leader in quality assurance for online education and has received national recognition for its peer-based approach to continuous improvement in online education and student learning. QM subscribers include community and technical colleges, colleges and universities, K-12 schools and systems, government agencies, corporations, and other education-related organizations. For more information, visit www.qualitymatters.org.
