Internet Learning Volume 3, Number 1, Spring 2014 | Page 5

Editorial
Internet Learning Journal April 2014
This issue of ILJ consists of a selection of papers concerning different aspects of online
teaching, learning, and quality assurance, stimulated by interaction with The Quality
Matters Higher Education Rubric and course review process. It captures a small, but
significant, sample of the kind of detailed analysis of online education toward which engagement
with QM typically leads. This kind of work is advancing incrementally toward a
better understanding of the most effective course design elements to promote learner persistence,
performance, and satisfaction, as well as the most effective strategies to persuade
faculty to adopt best practices and become part of the growing community of effective and
committed online instructors and facilitators.
Why has the study of effective standards for online education grown steadily, beyond the
usual confines of departments and colleges of education, in contrast to the level of interest
in the higher education classroom? Of course, the Quality Matters™ Program would like
to take credit for this trend, together with other organizations like ITC, WCET, MERLOT,
and the Sloan Consortium, through our conferences, sponsored research projects, and
activities to engage both faculty and instructional design and technology specialists. But
something deeper is at work.
The process for online and blended course creation and improvement at the postsecondary
level has engaged individuals and institutions in ways seldom experienced in
face-to-face education. This work increasingly involves teams of individuals who need to
share and collaborate in order to succeed. And the successful course, or even the well designed
learning object, is itself an artifact that begs to be shared, analyzed and improved.
This sharing begins locally, but spreads quickly to become regional, national, and even
international. The collaborations that result from this phenomenon and the courses that
are thereby strengthened, term by term, hold promise for the continual improvement of
online education, year-by-year and version-by-version.
In historical terms, we are only at the beginning of this process. I suspect, however, that it
will be a permanent feature of online education, leading to new strategies and tools, and,
ultimately, a re-conception of advanced learning, individualized to the learner. It will also
inevitably impact classroom-based education as well. We may be taking baby steps at
present with studies such as these, but the baby (online education) is growing rapidly.
Ron Legon, Ph.D.
Executive Director
The Quality Matters Program
and
Provost Emeritus
The University of Baltimore
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