Presiding: WILLIAM MCCLURE, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Presenter: CHRISTINA M. SAX, University of Maryland University College

    Quality assurance is of prime importance to various stake-holders in higher education. To address this priority, the FIPSE-funded Quality Matters™ (QM) project has created an inter-institutional continuous improvement process for assuring the quality of online courses. The credibility, reliability, and strength of this project stems from three core features of the project: 1) a faculty-centered peer-review process, 2) review criteria and a rubric based in the research literature, national standards of best practice, and instructional design principles, and 3) participation that is open, collaborative, and supportive. This session will summarize the nationwide QM project, as well as research findings from online course reviews, faculty training programs, adaptation of the QM process and tools by various institutions, and the development of rubrics for other course delivery formats and venues.