When Matthew Tyler — Instructional Designer and Technologist — wanted to expand his knowledge of current best practices in online course design, he turned to QM. Serving on K-12 Reviews helps him stay abreast of current developments in online learning, network with like-minded individuals and impact student achievement. Discover how being part of the K-12 review process can help meet your professional development needs too.

Our in-depth look at academic rigor continues in this second white paper from author Andria F. Schwegler. After establishing a comprehensive definition for academic rigor in her first paper, Andria advances the conversation in this second piece by examining the contexts needed to operationalize it — to put academic rigor into practice. Explore how elements such as course design, course delivery and the real world affect academic rigor, including how those elements support academic rigor and higher-level learning.

With a course catalog that includes offerings such as “The Future of Space Travel”, K-12 Publisher Pointful Education aims to provide today’s students with meaningful, future-thinking courses. But Pointful recognizes that it takes more than unique content to meet the needs of today’s learners. Find out how they are using QM to deliver the complete package — relevant courses that set students up for success.

Internal Reviews play an important part in the quality assurance process. Just ask East Central University in Oklahoma. After conducting 71 Internal Reviews, the University shares lessons learned, including how Internal Reviews improve the student experience, the steps the University takes to prepare faculty for the process, and how the reviews serve as a stepping stone to official reviews.

In light of today’s higher education environment — an environment where the value of higher education is being questioned and a focus on degree completion is paramount — it is imperative to improve the quality of the courses and programs being offered. Academic rigor is often a signal for the kind of education that is desirable, but the lack of a clear definition of it can actually erode academic expectations and impede student learning. To begin to address these issues, a comprehensive definition of academic rigor is needed.

Many factors contribute to a student’s online learning experience, including class size. That begs the question — what is the ideal number of students for an online class? As research shows, there is no easy, cookie-cutter answer, but there are some guidelines based on factors such as course design and pedagogy.

Faculty and staff development play an important role in delivering on your online promise. But is your team retaining the information they learn? North Carolina Central University didn’t think so. That’s why the University turned to game-based learning and gamification to help its team embrace continuous learning.

Many institutions search for ways to engage faculty in their quality assurance efforts. The Christ College of Nursing and Health Sciences gained faculty support for QM through a multifaceted approach, including professional development, course reviews and recognition. In the process, they enriched their faculty and created a win-win situation.

Achieving QM Certification for a course is accomplished through deliberate application of QM Standards for Course Design. If you've been involved in helping a course meet standards either as the Course Representative, course designer or through your work as an Instructional Designer, the QM community wants to see how you did it.

Providing students with an exceptional online learning experience is the goal of many schools. A solid quality assurance plan can help achieve that goal. But as Illinois Virtual School and teacher Pam Shaw discovered, the benefits of a quality assurance plan extend beyond student impact, making a difference for faculty, staff and the institution as a whole.