Course Quality Assurance: Certification for Online Learning

This Quality Assurance Course Tool is based upon the Research Publication in BMC Medical Education (2021): Wasfy, N.F., Abouzeid, E., Nasser A.A., Ahmed S., Youssry I., Hegazy, N. N., Shehata, M. H. K., Kamal, D., and Atwa, H. A guide for evaluation of online learning in medical education: a qualitative reflective analysis. The tool provides quality standards and indicators in three main quality areas: 1) Organizational Capacity; 2) Learning and Assessment; 3) Human Resources.

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Who are the designers and instructors of the course? Please list names and academic credentials.

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What is the name of the course?

What is the course description?

Organizational Capacity: Governance

Leadership encourages a collaborative environment to plan, implement and monitor the quality of online learning activities.

Leadership shares and cements the values, beliefs, and the operational expectations for a quality online learning.

Leadership holds themselves accountable to disclose accurate information about the recruitment process, policy, fees, courses/programs, and reports.

Leadership demonstrates proactive understanding and analyzing organizational needs to deliver effective online education.

Leadership creates a culture of acceptance and encouragement for online learning.

Leadership delegates responsibility to multidisciplinary teams and facilitates their work to implement and monitor online learning activities.

School Leadership is accountable and committed to support and lead the institution to delivering quality online education.

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Organizational Capacity: Resources

Presence of a learning management system (LMS) that ensures user-friendly and secure online environment.

Presence of accessible Internet services

Presence of digital tools that are aligned with the educational needs of learners.

Presence of the equipment that support successful online learning.

Presence of trained technical support team.

Financial resources allocated to online learning.

Provisional needs documents are available designed annually and approved by proper authorities.

Budget is well-managed in a transparent and documented way.

Resources for the online learning are allocated in a fair, reasonable manner that responds to the identified needs.

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Max. file size: 2 GB.

Organizational Capacity: Bylaws (regulations)

Presence of written policies & procedures or all online courses

There is a defined and documented process related to the online programs.

There is a documented clear policy governing the ongoing training and support to the working staff.

All students have equitable access to the online learning resources.

Presence of a clear policy for training the students and the staff

Bylaws clearly define the administrative issues, credit points calculation and the roles and responsibilities of team members.

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Section Break

Effective Learning and Assessment: Program

There is an approved, updated and well-constructed longitudinal online education plan that includes sufficient data to support decisions and is aligned with the educational program.

There are aligned and cascaded goals: strategic, long term, intermediate and short-term goals.

There is clear identification of the required resources to ensure sustainability of the online programs and courses.

The program has a clear robust design that respects the school vision, mission, and values and that demonstrates a clear understanding of the nature of the required graduate attributes.

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Max. file size: 2 GB.

Effective Learning and Assessment: Course Design

Course has a clear robust design that respects the school vision, mission and values with a clear distinction of the allocation of online teaching/ learning practices.

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Effective Learning and Assessment: Course Delivery

There is a plan for frequent evaluation that is approved and implemented with identified data collection methods (e.g., observation, questionnaires, focus group).

There is a well-organized plan for delivery with a backup.

A troubleshooting and complaint policy and procedure exists and is announced and used by learners.

Designed learning activities are implemented with minimal deviation from plans.

Technologies required in the course are readily obtainable.

Clearly defined platform used for online learning.

Establishment of an e-library to act as an educational back-up.

Courses should be delivered in the safest most accessible way providing standardized learning opportunities.

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Effective Learning and Assessment: Student Assessment

Digital tools are used to ensure secure, fair, valid, and applicable assessment.

There is use of multiple assessment methods to measure cognition, skills, and attitude of the students.

There is use of frequent formative assessment with feedback for better learning.

There are clear reports after the summative assessment.

There is a plan for academic counseling that is clear, manageable and is executed.

There is a plan for correctiver actions based on the students results of the formative assessment.

Student assessment to measure student achievement using multiple assessment methods that align with the learning objectives and the instructional methods. Data from assessment is evaluated and feeds into educational decision making.

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Max. file size: 2 GB.

Effective Learning and Assessment: Evaluation

There is documented continuous monitoring and evaluation for the online learning materials/ process by internal reviewers to collect and analyze data for continuous improvement. (about LMS, Faculty performance and satisfaction, and Students’ Engagement, Satisfaction, and Achievement)

There is documented periodic evaluation by external reviewers to validate the internal evaluation process and assess the goal achievement.

There is disclosure of the evaluation results with the stakeholders.

Data is used to drive decisions for continuous improvement.

Educational monitoring and evaluation plans are available with clearly assigned evaluation questions, key performance indicators and assigned personnel. The plan is implemented and the information it generates feeds into the educational replanning.

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Section Break

Human Resources: Faculty

There is a wide variety of professional development activities for the faculty pertaining to skills needed for online education.

There is timely and effective technical support to the faculty.

There is timely, frequent, and constructive feedback about instructor performance.

Faculty have an opportunity to add to their professional portfolio within online learning in the school.

The number of assigned faculty is reasonable, sufficient, and aligned with the student number and educational activities.

There is a clear definition of faculty roles and responsibilities.

The organization has personnel who can manage the educational process effectively and who are under continuous monitoring and development.

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Max. file size: 2 GB.

Human Resources: Students

There is briefing and orienting the students about the accessibility and availability of the online learning resources and digital tools.

Equity and accessibility to technology to all students is ensured.

There is timely and effective technical support to students to overcome limitations of technology & computer literacy.

There are guidelines for student-teacher and student-student communication.

The organization has personnel who can manage the educational process effectively and who are under continuous monitoring and development.

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Max. file size: 2 GB.

Human Resources: Administration

There exists a supporting administration team that is reasonable and aligned with the educational processes, number of students, number of faculty etc.

There is a solid development plan for administration of the online learning program.

There is a clear role definition for administration.

There is a definite pathway for troubleshooting and for complaints for administrators in the program.

The organization has personnel who can manage the educational process effectively and who are under continuous monitoring and development.

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Max. file size: 2 GB.