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From the Ground Up: Conceptions of Quality in Course Design for Web-Supported Education

Greenberg, Gary
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1269520873

Abstract Details

2010, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, ED Policy and Leadership.
Higher education in the U.S. is experiencing a wave of distance education activity, with nearly twenty percent of all U.S. higher education students taking at least one online course in the fall of 2007 (Allen & Seaman, 2008). Accompanying this activity is a renewed concern on the part of distance learning administrators, faculty, and professional associations about the overall quality of these efforts. Governments and institutions use a variety of approaches to measuring quality—internal and external committee reviews, formal assessments using standards and benchmarks created by government or professional bodies, and reviews of inputs and outputs akin to the quality assurance approaches of business and industry. This interpretive study explored the interaction between quality standards, faculty, staff, and managers by conducting an instrumental case study of one institution’s efforts to implement quality at the level of course creation and design. Big Town Community College’s Department of Distance Education and Instructional Support currently uses a widely available set of course design standards to assess and improve quality in its offerings of online courses. The course design standards, in the form of a rubric, are made available by an organization called Quality Matters (MarylandOnline, 2006). The study uses activity theory to analyze data and theorize about the case (Engeström, 2008). The primary finding of this study is that the Quality Matters rubric supported the design work of faculty and staff in significant ways—especially by helping to create a shared object for their course design activity. However, it also led to contradictions in the activity—both between staff and faculty and the design standards themselves, and also between staff and faculty and the division of labor used at the college for designing a Web-supported course. Other findings revolved around the question of how the project management model in use at Big Town supports and hinders the implementation of the Quality Matters rubric. These findings revealed the importance of the way in which an institution implements the Quality Matters process, particularly in regard to whether it treats the design standards as rules to be enforced, or as guidelines with which to begin a conversation about quality. Other findings concern the impact of increasing faculty and staff workloads due to Web-supported course design, and the importance of the working relationship between faculty members and instructional designers as they develop a course.
Richard Voithofer, PhD (Committee Chair)
Anika Ball Anthony, PhD (Committee Member)
David Stein, PhD (Committee Member)
Zhenchao Qian, PhD (Committee Member)
253 p.
Education; Educational Theory; Higher Education
Web-supported education; distance education; quality; course design; instructional design; Quality Matters; distance education management; distance learning

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Greenberg, G. (2010). From the Ground Up: Conceptions of Quality in Course Design for Web-Supported Education [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1269520873

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Greenberg, Gary. From the Ground Up: Conceptions of Quality in Course Design for Web-Supported Education. 2010. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1269520873.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Greenberg, Gary. "From the Ground Up: Conceptions of Quality in Course Design for Web-Supported Education." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1269520873

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1269520873
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© 2010, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.