Over the last two decades, America's schools have embraced tools that allow students to learn without the limitations of time and place.

Satellite, microwave, cable, and broadcast TV first gave students access to courses not otherwise available in their home schools. More recently, multimedia Internet-based technologies have provided even more powerful options for teaching and learning at a distance. With virtually all academic institutions now linked to the Internet, schools have adopted online courses to expand their curricula.

Online courses make sense. Not only do they expand the range of offerings to all students but they also are a boon to special populations such as homebound and other non-traditional students. In addition, they provide an alternative method of instruction, one that adults too are using for their own professional and personal development.

More than a year ago, Broward Community College began developing rigorous standards to guide the design and evaluation of online course quality. Based on research and the work of the best minds in the field of Instructional Design, we have recently completed a comprehensive set of standards that can now be used to design and evaluate online courses.

The standards have been compiled from the following publication

Accreditation and Assuring Quality in Distance Learning
CHEA Institute for Research and Study of Accreditation and Quality Assurance

Principles of Good Practice
The Foundation for Quality of the Electronic Campus of the Southern Regional Education Board

Quality Matters:Inter-Institutional Quality Assurance in Online Learning

Quality on the Line: Benchmarks for Success in Internet-based Distance Education

Relationships Between Interactions and Learning In Online Environments

 

Maintained by the Department of Instructional Technology
Updated: June 25, 2007