This document discusses how to write helpful recommendations for quality matters reviews. It explains that recommendations should originate from the standards on the rubric and aim to ensure courses continuously improve over time through a collaborative process. Recommendations are most helpful when they are specific, measurable, balanced between constructive criticism and sensitivity, and refer to concrete examples and evidence from the course.

1. Writing Helpful
Recommendations
and a little bit about where they come from
By Paul Brown

2. Why do we Write Recommendations at all?
• Recommendations are part of ensuring that the QM review process is:
• Continuous
• (ensuring that all courses meet expectations AND improve over time);
• Collegial
• (intended to be diagnostic);
• Collaborative
• (many ways to meet the standards and based on more than personal preference).

3. What is the basis for Recommendations?
Helpful
Recommendation
Standard
Characteristics
Course Evidence Annotation

4. How are Helpful Recommendations related to
the Standards?
Helpful
Recommendation
Standard
Characteristics
Course Evidence Annotation
Standard
Any helpful recommendation originates with the
standards presented on the rubric

5. How do Annotations (on the Rubric) help with
Writing Recommendations?
Helpful
Recommendation
Standard
Characteristics
Course Evidence Annotation
annotations
On the rubric
Provide specific and detailed
information about the standards
Present directions for reviewers to
ensure focus on the specific standard
being evaluated
Show examples of how a standard can be
met and provide for what constitutes a
mismatch (or discrepancy) between the
standard and the course being reviewed

6. What does “Course Evidence” mean for writing
Recommendations?
Helpful
Recommendation
Standard
Characteristics
Course Evidence Annotation
Course evidence
Means working with specific examples
from the course to establish clear
foundations for a reviewer’s evaluation
of “MET” or “NOT MET” for each of
the rubric standards.
Using “course evidence” means including
location of the evidence, exact quotes
from the selected evidence, and details
to demonstrate the level of “MET” or
“NOT MET” for each rubric standard.

7. What makes a Recommendation “Helpful?”
Helpful
Recommendation
Standard
Characteristics
Course Evidence Annotation
characteristics
There are five characteristics
of Helpful Recommendations
specific measurable
balanced
Constructive Sensitive

8. What makes a Recommendation “Helpful?”
Helpful
Recommendation
Standard
Characteristics
Course Evidence Annotation
There are five characteristics
of Helpful Recommendations
specific measurable
Recommendations must be Specific in
two different ways. The recommendations
need to refer to specific changes to be
made, specific assignments or learning
materials to be added (or altered), or how
these revisions will benefit learners and
the course in general. The
recommendations also need to be
specific in terms of how to address the
particular standards in question.
Recommendations must also be Measurable.
This means making suggestions that adhere
to components of the QM rubric and that the
changes must constitute a real change that
can be observed. An unmeasurable
recommendation such as “There should be
better alignment between assessments and
learning activities” is useless because “better”
is an arbitrary value and offers no indication
of what kind of change might work.

9. What makes a Recommendation “Helpful?”
Helpful
Recommendation
Standard
Characteristics
Course Evidence Annotation
There are five characteristics
of Helpful Recommendations
Constructive Sensitive balanced
Good reviewer recommendations are Balanced between Constructive criticism and
Sensitivity to the context of a peer review. The best method is to present an example
of something the instructor has done well for every instance of something that
requires improvement—especially if that standard is marked as “NOT MET.”
This method ensures sensitivity to the fact that reviews are collegial because it
illustrates that the reviewer has thoroughly examined the course and noted portions
of successful work as a basis for establishing that the instructor is fully capable of
altering unsuccessful components to meet the standards.

10. What makes a Recommendation “Helpful?”
Helpful
Recommendation
Standard
Characteristics
Course Evidence Annotation
Helpful recommendations
The five Characteristics
specific measurable
balanced
Constructive Sensitive
Helpful recommendations exhibit the following
characteristics: specific, measurable, balanced,
constructive, and sensitive.
Helpful recommendations originate with the
standards—which are elucidated by annotations on
the rubric—and refer to specific examples and course
evidence to establish the degree of “MET” or “NOT
MET” in relation to each standard.

11. What makes a Recommendation “Helpful?”
Helpful
Recommendation
Helpful recommendations
Helpful recommendations originate with the standards—
exhibit the following
Standard
Characteristics
Course Evidence Annotation
characteristics:
specific,
measurable,
balanced,
constructive,
and sensitive.
which are further elucidated by
annotations on the rubric,
Helpful recommendations refer to specific examples and course evidence to
establish the degree of “MET” or “NOT MET” in relation to each standard.

12. The End