Penn State Quality Assurance Standards

Purpose

The Quality Assurance e-Learning Design Standards are intended to provide a measure of quality assurance for online courses in order to serve the e-learning needs of Penn State students. These standards are directed to departments and colleges that wish to share online courses with other campuses or with students external to a Penn State geographic location via Penn State’s World Campus or e-Learning Cooperative.

Summary

This document specifies 12 quality assurance standards for Penn State WEB courses.

1. Navigation
   The course has a consistent and intuitive navigation system enabling students to quickly locate course information and materials.
2. Student Orientation
   A course orientation is used to familiarize the students with the course.
3. Syllabus
   Students have easy access to a course syllabus which contains crucial course information and requirements they need to know about the course prior to starting.
4. Instructor Response and Availability
   Instructor response time and availability is clearly communicated to the student.
5. Course Resource Requirements
   Hardware, software, or specialized resources required are clearly communicated to the students.
6. Technical Support
   Information regarding access to technical support is clearly communicated to the students.
7. Accessibility Requirements
   The course adheres to University policies and guidelines regarding accessibility.
8. Learning Objectives
   The course contains learning goals and objectives.
9. Learning Activities and Assessment
   The course learning activities and assessment serve to stimulate student interactions with the course content and determine how well student performance achieves the course goals and learning objectives.
10. Copyright Requirements
    The online course adheres to the current University policies for the use of third-party copyrighted material or is able to provide evidence of appropriate copyright clearance.
11. Course Functionality
    All aspects of the course perform properly and support student progress.
12. Student Input for Course Improvements
    Opportunities are provided to gather input from students on an on-going basis in order to inform course improvements.

Each standard is described in detail, including required evidence of how a standard is met. Suggested best practices and resources for additional information are also included.

Assumptions

1. The standards outlined in this document were designed for those courses that have a WEB classification. These standards may also apply to courses delivered via face-to-face format with e-learning components.
2. Although students may connect to the online course via a variety of bandwidths the minimum technology-connection considered for these standards is cable modem or high speed LAN connection.
3. Students participating in online courses may be geographically dispersed and may not have access to a local Penn State campus.

Procedures

At a minimum, the Penn State Quality Assurance e-Learning Design Standards are to be used to review WEB courses that are to be delivered via the World Campus or the Penn State e-Learning Cooperative. The e-Learning Advocate for each academic unit will be responsible for assuring that an e-Learning course meets all 12 standards. The academic unit approval will then be indicated through the advocate's signature on "Form A: e-Learning Cooperative Course Offering Request Form" for the e-Learning Cooperative and the Course Approval Form for the World Campus.

It is up to the local academic unit as to how they wish to implement these standards for WEB courses that are taught locally.

These standards will be reviewed and adjusted annually.