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.

QM Connect is the go-to conference for online and blended learning professionals. There, one can connect with like-minded individuals as well as fresh ideas to improve the learner experience. Discover how K-12 and higher ed attendees benefit from participating in the conference and how their quality assurance journeys are impacted by what they find there.

QM Exemplary Program Status is the highest level of quality certification for online programs. It is earned when an institution earns individual QM Program Certifications in four key areas — Online Program Design, Online Teaching Support, Online Learner Support, and Online Learner Success — within three years. Go behind the scenes of the certification process with the University of Alaska Fairbanks to learn more about what’s involved and the benefits it provides.