Assuring online course quality through customized minimum course standards

The University of South Florida, College of Public Health (COPH) has long been an innovator and leader in the field of distance education and public health. With student enrollments totaling over 8000 per year, the Educational Technology and Assessment (ETA) office supports the development and deployment of several online courses that lead to a variety of Master of Public Health and graduate certificate programs. Assuring online course quality and meeting stakeholders expectations are, therefore, key administrative concerns for the COPH. Online course quality is a concern for several stakeholders namely, administrators, instructors, instructional designers and students. To avoid varying levels of quality and to create consistent high-quality courses, the ETA office has customized a set of Minimum Standards for Online Courses that serves as a guiding force in planning, development, implementation and support of all online courses. In addition, the Minimum Standards document allow instructors to exceed the minimum expectations and provides concrete examples of taking courses to the next level. This session will focus on the process used to create customized standards that not only meets the needs of the institution but also that of the key stakeholders who are involved in the course development process. An overview of the Minimum Standards document and its implementation at this institution will also be provided.