Our Ohio State Commitment: Quality Online Courses
I won’t receive the same quality academic experience if I learn online...
My employers won’t value my degree if I study online…
I’ll spend so much time trying to learn the technology, which will impact how much I learn in an online course…
We’ve heard it all when it comes to online learning, which is why when it comes to our online programs at The Ohio State University, we are focused on academic quality above anything else. We stay committed to quality by following four focus areas when developing online courses for our programs:
Our University Requirements
Here at Ohio State, we pride ourselves on building online courses that meet the same quality standards as our courses offered around campus. This includes following instructional standards and best practices like accessibility, academic integrity, copyright, state authorization and more.
College / Program Requirements
In addition to the university-wide requirements, each program has their own local requirements and approval processes to follow. This might include receiving discipline-specific accreditation, which upholds the credibility of your educational experience.
Office of Distance Education and eLearning (ODEE) Recommendations
Each of our online course instructors work with an instructional designer from ODEE. The instructional designer works with the faculty member to create a set of goals and priorities for the course they are working on.
“When we’re helping instructors build their courses, we look at ways to create a more authentic learning experience for the student,” John Muir, Senior Instructional Designer with ODEE, said. “We do this by starting with a clean visual design and navigation in the course. Then, we look critically at the assignments and activities in the course to ensure there are mechanisms built in for instructor and peer-level interaction.”
Quality Matters (QM) Rubric
Aside from our internal mechanisms to focus on quality, we also consider the external standards set by QM. Many of the objectives around QM are built into our processes like accessibility, learning objectives and learner interaction and engagement.
“Following these focus areas when developing online courses ensures that quality is top-of-mind,” Muir said. “At the end of the day, we want our students to walk away from their online programs prepared to take the next step in their careers.”
Are you ready to learn online at Ohio State? Visit our online programs page to see if we have the online offering that will help you propel your career forward.