This study examined the relationship of intentional faculty professional development, intentional online course design, and informal course reviews to the results of official interinstitutional peer review within higher education institutions. Quality MattersTM (QM) provided the setting for this exploration of the relationship of three independent variables at the course level at institutions that have voluntarily implemented QM online learning quality assurance tools and processes. Data for this study were extracted from a larger statistical project conducted regularly by QM, which included the results of 5,436 online course reviews completed between September 2014 and May 2020 at 360 institutions. These courses were assessed for meeting quality standards in structured, interinstitutional, reviews, conducted by three faculty peer reviewers. QM provided the setting and data for this study; however, the study was not about QM. Instead, it was about exploring the relationships of variables within an institution’s control in the quest for benchmarking and improving online learning. Having and disseminating online course quality standards does not ensure implementation of those standards and quality assurance processes. This observational study provides a better understanding of how the implementation of those standards and quality assurance processes might impact outcomes.
Data were collected from 353 online undergraduate introductory statistics students at the beginning of a semester using the Goals and Outcomes Associated with Learning Statistics (GOALS) instrument and an abbreviated form of the Statistics Anxiety Rating Scale (STARS). Data included a survey of expected grade, expected time commitment, and the first lesson quiz. At the end of the semester, whether each student completed the course with a grade of D or higher was recorded. It was hypothesized that students who successfully completed the course would have favorable ratings on each of these variables. While there were no significant differences between students who did and did not successfully complete the course in terms of anxiety, attitudes, or expected time commitment, students who completed the course had higher scores on the GOALS, higher expected grades, and higher scores on the first quiz of the semester. Stepwise logistic regression found that students' attitudes towards statistics teachers and scores on the first quiz of the semester could be used to predict whether students would successfully complete the course. Based on these findings, suggestions for online instructors are given.
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