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Accreditation Standards and Best Practices Guidelines

The Office of Online Education uses the following accreditation standards and best practices to guide current development and ongoing growth of online programs and courses:

The Southern Association of Colleges and School

This document guides the development and implementation of MU’s online programs to facilitate the process for eventual SACS accreditation.

The Online Learning Consortium Quality Scorecard for the Administration of Online Programs

The Online Learning Consortium is a professional organization committed to advancing online education.  The consortium’s scorecard measures best practices in the administration of online programs under the following categories:

  • Institutional Support
  • Technology Support
  • Course Development/Instructional Design
  • Course Structure
  • Teaching & Learning
  • Social and Student Engagement
  • Faculty Support
  • Student Support

While MU is not a member yet, we plan to join in the future.  Full membership will provide each faculty member access to all the resources and information The Online Learning Consortium offers.

Quality Matters™ Program

The Quality Matters™ Program (QM) is a faculty-centered peer-review quality assurance program for online courses. As a national benchmark for online course design, we will use the QM rubric and standards to guide the design, development, and delivery of MU’s online programs. Unique to the Rubric is the concept of alignment. This occurs when critical course components–Learning Objectives, Assessment and Measurement, Instructional Materials, Course Activities and Learner Interaction, and Course Technology—work together to assure that students achieve intended learning outcomes. The Dean of Online Education and other faculty members familiar with QM’s rubric will bring the standard of online education to bear on every program that MU offers.