A large body of research has documented weaker student performance in online courses relative to face-to-face courses across multiple outcomes, including grades, course completion, and persistence. These gaps are particularly pronounced for underserved students. In response, colleges and universities have sought to improve the quality of online…

Like all educational institutions, community colleges rapidly shifted to online instruction in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, little is known about what factors shaped individual college responses. This survey of distance education leaders (N = 45) in the California community colleges system aimed to: (a) characterize pre-COVID…

As participation in online learning continues to expand, higher education institutions must implement policies and procedures to ensure quality at the course, program, and institution levels. In this paper, the authors describe a process that the State University of New York (SUNY) System implemented, utilizing the OLC Quality Scorecard, to help…