QUALITY MATTERS: INTER-INSTITUTIONAL QUALITY IMPROVEMENT FOR ONLINE COURSES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v10i1.1772Keywords:
Online Learning, Inter-institutional Collaboration, Quality Assurance, Quality ImprovementAbstract
The Quality Matters (QM) project funded by FIPSE and administered by MarylandOnline (MOL) is creating a replicable inter-institutional continuous improvement model to assess, assure, and improve the quality of online courses. Designed to address statewide and national needs for credible quality assurance in online learning, the inter-institutional collaboration is an integral and essential feature of QM project organization, implementation, and impact. The project uses inter-institutional, intersegmental peer review teams as an integral part of the quality improvement process; the expansion of the peer reviewer pool to involve faculty from two- and four-year institutions beyond MOL members in peer reviews of courses is also particularly noteworthy. The QM project’s success to date indicates the viability of creating an interinstitutional collaborative process for quality improvement in online courses. Future efforts will focus on determining whether the project can build and maintain a sustainable model for the long term.
References
Quality Matters website. Online: http://www.qualitymatters.org/about_qm.htm.
Allen, I. E. & Seaman, J. Entering the Mainstream: The Quality and Extent of Online Education in the United States, 2003 and 2004. The Sloan Consortium, Needham, MA, 2003. Online: http://www.sloan-c.org/resources/survey.asp.
Symonds, W. C. Giving it the old online try. Business Week Online, December 3, 2001. Online: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_49/b3760072.htm.
Yang, Y. and Cornelius, L. Preparing instructors for quality online education. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration 8(1): 2005. Online: http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring81/yang81.htm.
Buck, J. Assuring quality in distance education. Higher Education in Europe 26(4): 599–602, 2005.
Berge, Z. Concerns of Online Teachers in Higher Education. 2001.Online: http://www.emoderators.com/zberge/iste98.html.
Bower, Beverly L. Distance education: Facing the faculty challenge. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration 4(2): 2001. Online: http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer42/bower42.html.
Michigan Community College Virtual Collaborative. Online Course Development Guidelines and Rubric. Online:http://www.mccvlc.org/~staff/Course-Guidelines-Rubric-v1.2.html.
Edwards, R. Personal communications, October 27–28, 2004.
Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, California State University, Chico. Rubric for Online Instruction. Online: http://www.csuchico.edu/celt/roi/.
Web Initiative in Teaching. WIT Home Page. Online: http://www.umuc.edu/ide/wit/wit.html.
Web Initiative in Teaching. WIT Team Projects. Online: http://www.umuc.edu/ide/wit/projects/projects.html.
Monterey Institute for Technology and Education. OECP Home Page. Online: http://www.montereyinstitute.org/ocep.html.
Monterey Institute for Technology and Education. OECP Overview. Online: http://www.montereyinstitute.org/pdf/OCEP%20Evaluation%20Categories_Distribution%20Version%204_28.pdf.
Threlkeld, R. Online Course Evaluation Project: Bringing Quality to Online Learning. Presentation at Distance Learning Conference 2005, Madison, WI, August 4, 2005.
Pickett, A. SUNY Course Design Process. From Student Satisfaction and Perceived Learning with On-line Courses - Principles and Examples from the SUNY Learning Network. 1999. Online: http://sln.suny.edu/sln/public/original.nsf/0/67a0a1809ce6fb3585256eac0061cb56?OpenDocument
EArmyU RFP. Online: http://www.timecook.com/consulting/eArmyRFP.doc.
EArmyU web site. Online: http://www.earmyu.com/public/public_about-auao_partners.asp.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
As a condition of publication, the author agrees to apply the Creative Commons – Attribution International 4.0 (CC-BY) License to OLJ articles. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
This licence allows anyone to reproduce OLJ articles at no cost and without further permission as long as they attribute the author and the journal. This permission includes printing, sharing and other forms of distribution.
Author(s) hold copyright in their work, and retain publishing rights without restrictions