Online Course Quality Standards
USU Online is Utah’s #1 Online University by U.S. News & World Report. In fact, USU is the only university in Utah to make it among the top 100 in the nation. We achieve this by having high quality online course standards that follow industry best practices. We strive to have well designed courses that include interaction and go beyond simply downloading documents or watching recorded lectures.
The following best practices have proven to be essential in creating and managing well designed courses that facilitate student and instructor success. For additional information on these topics, please contact the Online Design team.
- The course is structured into intuitive modules that adhere to a generally consistent framework.
- All USU-required descriptive course information is present and easy to find. It does not deviate from the scope of the course as described in the USU catalog.
- The course navigation helps students move effectively through the course.
- A course schedule with due dates is readily available .
- The module release schedule allows students to see at least the current week and the subsequent week.
- A welcome message from the instructor provides students with an overview of the course design.
- The course addresses information necessary for online student success, including resources, guidelines, rules, and expectations.
- Information is provided about the learner support resources that are relevant to the course, including links and directions for accessing services.
- The course lists high-level outcomes that align with its curricular description and designation and its selected IDEA objectives.
- Each module addresses additional, module-specific learning outcomes.
- Course and module outcomes are measurable and observable.
- Assignments and assessments directly measure the learning outcomes.
- The course includes learning outcomes that require students to engage in different types of thinking, from basic recall to higher-order analysis and creation.
- Students are allowed to submit feedback and ideas, outside of the IDEA student survey, for improving the course.
- The course provides regular opportunities, through both formative and summative assessment, for students to demonstrate their progress and receive feedback.
- Assignments have clear and appropriately detailed instructions.
- The course includes appropriately detailed rubrics for most assignments.
- Assessments are varied and applicable to authentic, real-world settings.
- Auto-graded assessments use built-in feedback to provide timely and personalized guidance.
- Students who are not making satisfactory progress are given opportunities for remediation.
- Assessment incorporates opportunities for student choice.
- Instructional materials are aligned with the course learning outcomes.
- Topics are introduced in a way that provides real-world context and connects new material to previous concepts.
- All primary instructional multimedia is specifically selected and/or designed for the online student audience. (No in-class recordings for primary content.)
- Instructional materials are provided in a variety of formats.
- Audio and video quality is clear and professional.
- Online lecture videos are presented in segments of no longer than 20 minutes.
- Instructional materials include real-world applications, simulations, and/or current industry practice.
- Materials prepare students for assessments by providing clear guidelines, practice opportunities, and examples of expected performance.
- Lecture and reading materials are accompanied by opportunities for recall, reflection, and application.
- Student-to-content interaction is more than just information consumption. It allows for application, creation, personalization, and transformative engagement.
- The course design fosters regular and substantive interaction between instructors and students.
- Readings and lecture content are supported by opportunities for active learning, both within and beyond the course.
- Appropriate tools are used for their intended purposes.
- Assignments, student progress, and grades are tracked and communicated through Canvas.
- All applications are USU approved, with USU-approved integrations (where integration is possible), and used in ways that comply with data privacy and security policies.
- Links to course resources (in and out of Canvas) are functional.
- Student work completed through tools outside of Canvas is graded within Canvas.
- Technologies used are mobile friendly and cross-platform compatible to the extent possible.
- Task-specific technology tutorials are provided for tools students are likely to be unfamiliar with.
- Course files are posted in accessible formats.
- Course videos are accurately captioned.
- Images that provide information are posted with descriptive alternative text.
- Content that is typed into Canvas follows accessibility practices (heading tags for text headers, descriptive links, appropriate use of tables, etc.)
- Sufficient contrast exists between background colors and foreground elements, such as text.
- The course does not contain any files, pages, videos, or images that are not used by students.