Online & Hybrid Course Quality Assurance Program

Background and what QA means

CSUEB launched the Quality Assurance program at the start of Spring 2015, with funding from the CSU Chancellor's Office and support from the Provost's Office. The work centers around Quality Matters (QM), a nationally recognized organization dedicated to continuous improvement in online course design through peer review.

A QM high-quality course certification has three elements:

• A detailed quality standards rubric for evaluating online and blended course design
• A collegial peer review process conducted by trained reviewers
• Professional development through QM-certified workshops

Faculty are encouraged to take training through Quality Matters (QM) or Quality Learning & Teaching (QLT), work with Online Campus eLearning Specialists, request peer review of their courses, and earn QM or QLT certification as a Quality Online Course.

Is there a real impact on student learning? Yes.

Faculty who've taken QM workshops or certified their courses have shared how the experience changed their teaching - including how they facilitate face-to-face courses. Reports and studies from CSUEB faculty research associates show evidence of decreased non-passing grades in QA-implemented courses, and faculty perception of the impact is overwhelmingly positive.

Working with Institutional Effectiveness & Research (IER), we've put historical data (2018-2023) into a public dashboard that tracks the impact of QA on student success.

The data shows non-passing grades decreased after QA implementation across every demographic group: First-Gen / Non First-Gen, URM / Non-URM, Low Income / Not Low-Income, and more.

View the QA impact dashboard →

CSUEB's QA program by the numbers

CSUEB faculty serve as QM trained personnel across the country:

What's special about Subscriber-Managed Official Reviews: CSUEB is the first and only CSU campus with this status. It means we don't have to send our courses to QM HQ for review - we conduct and certify them ourselves on campus, faster and more responsively to faculty needs.

Workshops and certifications

Online Campus offers QM-certified workshops on campus. The most-attended sessions are face-to-face workshops designed for faculty new to online teaching as well as those iterating on existing courses.

See full upcoming workshop schedule with Zoom registration →

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