Developing and Implementing Instrumentation for Digital High School Curricula - A Regional Study of a Rubric for Instructional Quality

Oct 15, 2026

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Study develops and implements an evaluative rubric to assess high school digital curricula created for a regional U.S. consortium of school districts. Ten course teams, each with 4–7 teachers, designed 2–4 digital instructional units per course, totaling 30 units. The NWOi3 Evaluation Rubric for Digital Curriculum applies 36 criteria across eight areas, using expert review and consolidated scoring with detailed feedback. Challenges and rubric result reporting are analyzed. Keywords cover blended learning, curriculum development, evaluation, teacher design teams, and rubrics.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time33 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Literature Review

Rubric Development and Implementation

Evaluation Criteria and Areas

Review Process and Reporting

Athens Journal of Education-Volume 5, Issue 4 – Pages 361-374 Developing and Implementing Instrumentation for Digital High School Curricula: A Regional Study of a Rubric for Instructional Quality By Rachel Vannatta Reinhart * Savilla Banister† As our world has continued to become more dependent on digital communication and collaboration, online learning environments have become more sophisticated. Demand for online and/or hybrid learning materials has increased, not only in higher education arenas, but in elementary and secondary schools, as well. This study describes the development and implementation of an evaluative rubric for high school digital curricula created for a United States regional consortium of school districts, charged with expanding quality digital learning environments for their students. Digital instructional units for ten high school courses were created by collaborative teacher design teams, with each team consisting of 4-7 teachers. With the goal of creating 1/3 ofayear’s curriculum, teams developed 2-4 units per course in the first year. A total of 30 units were developed and evaluated. In collaboration with project partners, developed the NWOi3 Evaluation Rubric for Digital Curriculum that was used to assess curriculum units and consisted of 36 criteria organized by eight areas: 1) Overview, 2) Learning Targets, 3) Instructor Support, 4) Accessibility, 5) Instructional Materials, 6) Learner Interaction and Engagement, 7) Technology, and 8) Assessment. A variety of sources contributed to rubric development: Quality Matters K-12 Secondary Rubric (Quality Matters, 2017), Blended Course Peer Review Form (Blended Learning Toolkit, 2014), and the National Standards for Quality Online Programs (International Association for K-12 Online Learning [iNACOL], 2011). The evaluation process utilized a team of reviewers: five content experts, and three curriculum/ technology experts. A third evaluator then summarized the two reviews for every unit, providing a score for each criterion along with detailed comments and feedback. The process of how rubric results were analyzed and reported is described along with the challenges encountered. Keywords: blended learning, curriculum development, evaluation, Teacher design teams, rubrics. Introduction As a part of the public critique of government spending in the United States, the expense associated with the purchase of textbooks for K-12 and university classes has been under scrutiny (Harris & Schneegurt, 2016). In response to this controversy, schools have begun to explore digital options for academic materials, including Open Source alternatives (Delimont, Turtle, Bennett, Adhikari, & Lindshield, 2016; Fischer, Hilton, Robinson, & Wiley, 2015; Hilton, 2016; Prasad *Professor, Bowling Green State University, USA. †Professor, Bowling Green State University, USA. [https://doi.org/10.30958/aje.5-4-2](https://doi.org/10.30958/aje.5-4-2) doi=10.30958/aje.5-4-2 Vol. 5, No. 4 Reinhart et al.: Developing and Implementing Instrumentation… & Usagawa, 2016). Accompanying this transition, the interest of expanding the impact and usefulness of digital resources that move beyond mere textual content to more media-rich and interactive learning materials has grown (Lombardi et al., 2017; Matuk, Linn, & Eylon, 2015) . There are certainly reservations about immersing students in a completely digital learning environment (Dobler, 2015; Duffy & Ney, 2015; Toppin & Toppin, 2016), giving rise to a more balanced vision of blending learning experiences (Mirriahi, Alonzo, & Fox, 2015) . In an effort to reduce the continuous textbook expenses and provide students with dynamic, digital learning resources, the NorthWest Ohio Innovate, Instruct, and Inspire (NWOi3) consortium of seven school districts set out to develop ten digital courses for high school: Geometry, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, English 9, English 10, English 11, Biology, Physical Science, American History and Americ

FAQs

What was the main purpose of the study?

To develop and implement an evaluative rubric for assessing the instructional quality of high school digital curricula for a regional U.S. consortium.

How were the digital curriculum units created and evaluated?

Teacher design teams created 2–4 units per course during the first year, totaling 30 units, and the rubric was used to assess each unit through expert review and consolidated scoring.

What does the NWOi3 Evaluation Rubric include?

It contains 36 criteria organized into eight areas: Overview, Learning Targets, Instructor Support, Accessibility, Instructional Materials, Learner Interaction and Engagement, Technology, and Assessment.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Mimi