Internationalizing Quality Matters™: The China Case

Abstract

The success of the Quality Matters (QM)TM program, especially acceptance of the QM RubricTM in the United States, has attracted increasing international attention. Plans to translate and disseminate the Rubric in the non-English-speaking world, however, should consider whether the U.S. version is equally relevant in different cultural settings. The authors believe that, to be effective and gain acceptance, standards of quality online course design detailed in the Rubric standards and annotations may need to be modified to reflect pedagogical traditions and habits of mind in the receiving culture. They first consider the case for a literal translation of the validated Rubric, and then they make a case for cultural adaptation of the Rubric. Using the example of China, major differences are identified when using the existing QM Higher Education Rubric to review a sample course. The plan to adapt the Rubric for China through collaboration with Fudan University, a leading educational institution in the target culture, is outlined.