Quality Matters Rubric Potential for Enhancing Online Foreign Language Education

Abstract

Quality Matters Program is designed to certify the quality of online courses in colleges and universities across and beyond the U.S. The Quality Matters Rubric (QMR) consists of eight general standards and 41 specific standards which are used to evaluate and design online and blended courses. The purpose of this study is to highlight the QMR standards that can contribute to providing a virtual learning space that caters for whole-person learning needs with special focus on EFL learners. In other words, the QMR has the potential to help in designing quality online courses that make EFL learning process more humanized and with a strong sense of instructors’ and learners’ presence that is sometimes neglected in online or blended learning environments. The typical characteristics attributed to Arab students are that they are obedient, uncritical, and unwilling to challenge the authority of teachers which are considered a challenge to the concept of autonomy in EFL learning. The design of EFL courses according to QMR standards is likely to make difference with regard to such cultural characteristics in a way that promotes learners’ communicative competence.