The Quality Conversation

It’s hard to believe it’s been five years since the sudden shift to remote learning in spring 2020. Institutions, faculty, and staff scrambled to keep courses going—and they did, under incredibly tough circumstances. But as time passed, many of the critiques of that emergency shift unfairly landed on online learning as a whole. In today’s post, John Opper, Executive Director of Distance Learning and Student Services with the Florida Virtual Campus, helps us take a step back and set the record straight. John reflects on the difference between emergency remote instruction and quality online learning and shares how Florida institutions continue to invest in doing online right.

Enjoy the read,

Lindsey Downs, WCET

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We are now five years away from the spring semester of 2020, when education faced the challenge of an emerging pandemic. Remember when the only option for continuing operations was to shift all courses online?

Everyone stepped up, and that conversion was made by the end of the spring break period. Operations continued: students adapted, faculty adjusted their courses, and online learning professionals worked tirelessly to support, in most cases, double the normal online course offerings. Our online course listings catalog in Florida went from approximately 79,000 to over 135,000 in very short order.

Quickly, the term “remote learning” was coined to describe the converted face-to-face courses, and there was a significant rise in synchronous online courses. Extraordinary measures were taken at a time of great necessity. I think it is fair to say that our remote learning courses were as good as we could make them, given the conditions at the time.

Post-pandemic, several surveys of public opinion and stories in the general media raised questions about the quality of remote learning in higher education. Some stories reported student dissatisfaction with their experience, and others suggested that online learning should be discouraged in favor of face-to-face delivery. Concerns about student learning and retention followed,  all of which were unfairly laid at the feet of online learning in general.

Why Quality Online Learning Takes Time—and Why That Matters

Over the course of the last 35 years, distance learning has enjoyed significant growth in postsecondary education. As a result, we have learned a thing or two about how to offer effective and engaging instruction using the technologies available. Since the 1990’s, when a distance learning renaissance began, colleges and universities have invested significantly in digital technology (i.e., Learning Management Systems, plagiarism detection, media hosting, remote assessment proctoring, etc.), faculty development, and support for teaching utilizing technology to better meet the needs and expectations of students. Further, colleges and universities have added instructional designers and adopted policies and procedures to ensure that any new distance learning course or program has been thoroughly tested, reviewed, and monitored to meet the institution’s quality standards. To aid in that effort, several quality assurance rubrics and processes have been created through professional and affiliated organizations such as Quality Matters and the Online Learning Consortium. In addition, accrediting agencies have also adopted quality standards for distance learning programs. A concern for and dedication to producing the best courses and programs has been a core value throughout the growth period of the last three and a half decades. Given the short window of time, the product of the “remote learning” model, offered as an emergency solution to the challenges presented by the pandemic, could not go through the same process that is utilized through the normal operations of our distance learning programs. As a result, what we were able to produce in three months during the emergency conversion period of COVID-19 and what is the normal expectation for a distance learning course or program should not be viewed with the same lens.

Despite the popularity and benefits of online learning, three conversations never seem to be far away when the topic comes up. The three concerns are:

1. The cost of online learning courses and programs,
2. academic integrity in online courses, and,
3. the quality of online courses.

WCET has done good work in researching and following these issues. The three topics, cost, academic integrity, and quality, are often interrelated. What starts out as one conversation can easily expand to include the other two. A well-designed online course can be more expensive than a face-to-face course. And a well-designed online course normally manages to address the assessment of student learning thoughtfully. Are there poor online learning courses? Certainly, no mode of instructional delivery is completely free of problems. Although face-to-face courses are sometimes the target of such critical discussions, they seem to enjoy some level of immunity in the theater of public discourse when it comes to quality. However, the question remains, through all of these concerns, how we can have a fair and productive conversation about quality in online learning?

Quality in Online Learning Takes the Stage in Florida

In response to some of the unfair criticism of online learning and to spotlight the critical efforts of Florida’s colleges and universities to deliver high-quality instruction, the Florida Virtual Campus (FLVC), in collaboration with its college and university members council, launched a month-long Quality in Online Teaching and Learning Initiative. The month is in one part a showcase for the quality assurance efforts of our institutions and a chance to illustrate some of the amazing courses and learning tools in use plus an opportunity for further professional development for our faculty and staff.

We offered two tracks of activities. The first involved a once-a-week series of large issue panel presentations coupled with more focused webinars throughout each week on best practice activities or tool and techniques sessions designed to inform and share resources that could enhance quality improvement. The second track was composed of low-cost professional development certification courses for staff to obtain the APPQMR certification through Quality Matters. The sessions were offered on a variety of days and online by our faculty in cooperation with Quality Matters. The goal was to provide a low cost, convenient opportunity for our institutions to increase the number of APPQMR certified faculty on our campuses.

With the help of our institutions, our faculty, Quality Matters, WCET, and others, we were able to build a solid program for the month of April. Our hope is that this can be the start of a more visible conversation and showcase for the work that has been and continues to be underway. Perhaps this is something that would work for other states and institutions as well? We are happy to share more about what we accomplished and what we learned along the way.

Let’s Reignite the Quality Conversation

A conversation about quality in online courses and programs can sometimes be received with all the excitement of a tax audit. We need to change that dynamic. The journey to make our online courses and programs the best that they can possibly be is a journey that does not really have an ending. There will always be new technologies, tools, and ideas that we can use to better support learners and teachers. If we don’t keep talking about improvement, then we will miss opportunities to move forward. The more we talk about quality in a positive way, as an opportunity to collaborate, create, improve, explore, inspire and support, the more progress we may see. Fortunately, we have faculty and online learning professionals who are doing just that. And we need to tell that story often and loudly.

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