Listening and Learning: Using Student Feedback as a Quality Assurance Practice in an Online Degree Program

Online quality assurance (QA) is vital for ensuring high educational standards and student success and can include various actions and procedures to monitor, assess, and improve educational quality. For example, online QA practices at the course level frequently evaluate design quality and may also evaluate effectiveness of online teaching. However, online learners have unique support needs outside of the pedagogical design of the course itself, such as technology support and training, as well as belonging and community needs for students enrolled in fully-online degree programs. Although student feedback should be a vital component of online QA practices, both at the course and program level, it is frequently ignored in favor of other QA data, such as faculty/peer reviews or meeting accreditation requirements. As a notable exception, this chapter will provide an overview of one college’s dedication to “students first” QA, by developing a QA framework for an online degree program that collects and utilizes student feedback in order to prioritize student success.