Three Essential Targets for Establishing a Culture of Continuous QA Improvement

Most people tense up when they know their work is going to be analyzed for quality. So when it's time to introduce or expand a quality assurance program for online courses at your institution, it can be expected that you will have to initiate some culture change. As the second-largest institution in the University of Texas System and also ranked fifth among national universities for undergraduate ethnic diversity in 2017, the University of Texas at Arlington continues to increase the number of online courses. Such facts motivated The Center of Distance Education (CDE) Department to expand our quality assurance program for our online courses and degree programs to further support our diverse students. We went through the process, learned from mistakes, and identified three essential targets for starting and maintaining a QA program. The first target is to set the conditions for introducing the QA review to faculty who are developing online courses. The second target is to determine who will complete each QA review. And the third target is to determine a plan for professional development and continuous improvement for all participant roles in the QA process. What are some tried and tested ways to accomplish these three targets? Join our team of instructional designers from CDE, as we share what has and has not worked for our QA program through this time of growth and development.