Learning Quality Assurance Program

To remain competitive and continue to serve our students well, St. Kate’s can’t just offer online courses—we need to offer high-quality online course that provide effective learning experiences. This is where the St. Catherine University Learning Quality Assurance Program comes in.

Learning Quality Assurance Program Goals:

• Consistent, high-quality online/hybrid course experiences for St. Kate’s student population.
• Easily accessible general resources for all students.
• Resources for faculty that support their processes for building and teaching online/hybrid courses.

To build St. Kate’s QA program, we reviewed 10 quality assurance rubrics that were either common in the field (such as Quality Matters and the Online Learning Consortium’s OSCQR) or were from institutions complementary to St. Kate’s (such as St. Thomas and the University of Minnesota). These 10 rubrics yielded 115 criteria. St. Kate's elected to incorporate 112 criteria into the Learning Quality Assurance Program at St. Kate's. 

St. Kate's QA program has organized the 112 quality assurance criteria into 8 categories. 

Learning Quality Assurance Program Categories:

1. General Course Information and Clarity of Purpose.
2. Knowledge Acquisition.
3. Course Alignment.
4. Compliance.
5. Ease of Use.
6. Accessibility.
7. Learner Support.
8. Learner Engagement. 

The 8 categories and 112 criteria have been organized into the Essential Quality Standards & Recommended Practices Course Checklist. This comprehensive framework ensures that our courses meet the highest standards of excellence, fostering continuous improvement and providing valuable insights for enhancing the learning experience.

In our comprehensive Quality Assurance Program, we offer flexibility and inclusivity by allowing two distinct approaches to course evaluation. Faculty members can opt for course reviews conducted by our experienced instructional designers, who bring their expertise in instructional design to the assessment process. An instructional designer will perform a review of your course and complete the Quality Assurance Review Checklist document. The document will shared with you upon completion of the review. To initiate a course review by one of our instructional designers, kindly submit a review request through our Service Now ticketing system.

Alternatively, instructors have the option to complete a self-assessment review of their courses or ask a colleague to perform a peer review. The Essential Quality Standards and Recommended Practices Course Checklist is the recommended tool for this process as it provides additional resources to help assist in meeting each QA category.

NOTE: Quality Assurance reviews performed by instructional designers are NOT teaching evaluations, performance reviews, or critiques of your content or assignments. Rather, a review is a second set of eyes to help ensure you are incorporating the quality standards outlined in the Learning Quality Assurance Program.