Developing criteria for an online learning environment: from the student and faculty perspectives

The research literature abounds with articles about distance learning from the perspectives of students, faculty, and administrators. Most of these articles discuss the details of transitioning to on-line learning environments. Research is beginning to pay attention to quality issues in distance learning. This article discusses a three-phase developmental study conducted in a graduate school. Students were asked to brainstorm and develop a set of quality indicators. These indicators were ranked by a second group of students. Then the indicators were given to a group of faculty for another ranking. In this study it was shown that there was a very great agreement on the relative importance of the various potential indicators of quality in courses delivered via an on-line medium.