Quality Assurance Process Launched at Ohio State
After months of research around processes and best practices for quality course design and review, the Office of Distance Education and eLearning (ODEE) is launching its new Quality Assurance (QA) process.
QA is The Ohio State University’s way to ensure quality design for online and hybrid courses. It is built into both the course design and review process used by the instructional design team when creating courses for online programs. The new process is grounded in the Quality Matters rubric, but customized to fit the needs of Ohio State. The new customized rubric and set of requirements contain four pieces:
The Ohio State University Requirements
ODEE maintains ongoing communications with campus stakeholders about instructional standards and best practices for Ohio State. Those standards are academic integrity, accessibility, copyright, regular and substantive interaction in the course, security, authorization for instructing students in different states, and syllabus language.
College and Program Requirements
The distance education team works with degree program directors to establish and update local requirements and approval processes. These include Carmen templates and structure, required local approvals, and syllabus language.
ODEE Recommendations
An instructional designer works with each course instructor to create a customized set of goals and priorities for the course they are developing. This includes real-world assignments, effective course content, learner engagement, measurable outcomes, engaging student activities, and a clean, welcoming visual style.
Quality Matters Rubric
The Quality Matters (QM) rubric, an external tool, defines course quality standards and is used as part of course templates and the course review process. The standards include course information, clearly stated learning objectives, course technology support and requirements, learner support resources, and accessibility considerations.
For the university, this customized rubric will positively impact the level of quality for our online courses and programs, and achieving our goal of providing our online students with a great education.
“Following the QA rubric ensures courses are designed with quality in mind,” ODEE instructional designer Tim Lombardo said. “Working through this process helps us to give our online students an excellent educational experience.”
Want to learn more about Quality Assurance? Reach out to ODEE’s instructional design team to see how your online courses or program can utilize this process.