Assessing Quality Dimensions and Elements of Online Learning

to face instruction (Dabbagh & Schmitt, 1998; Perold & Maree, 2003). It is these
pedagogic improvements that administrators in higher education hope to achieve.
However, concerns with quality may be a barrier to this achievement.
Hergert (2003) reported that students enrolled in a new online management course
were skeptical about the quality of the online course. The research community has
concerns as well. Herrington, Reeves, & Oliver (2005) suggest that many online learning
environments are simply frameworks to impart inert knowledge rather than to support
meaningful learning and active use of knowledge. Also, in many cases, online learning
environments are simply replications of traditional face to face courses (Cox, 2005;
Twigg, 2001a).
Concerns about quality and less than robust learning experiences as well as
challenges with adopting new learning strategies may account for low student retention
rates. While no national statistic exists on online retention rates, anecdotal information
from community colleges and four- year institutions reveal that student retention rates in
online courses are lower than in the traditional face to face counterparts (Carr, 2000;
Doherty, 2006). Given these challenges, higher education cannot progress towards
improvements in online environments without an overall portrait of the ways in which
online learning is being implemented and the attributes of online environments which
impact students’ perceptions of the quality of their learning.
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