Congratulations to Open Learning and Educational Support, with collaboration from the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development, and instructor Marianne Staempfli, who submitted the online undergraduate course EDRD*4010 DE – “Tourism Planning in the Less Developed World” to Quality Matters (QM) for course review.   This is the first Canadian course that has achieved the Quality Matters (QM) Certification Mark and the first one at the University of Guelph to be certified.

Quality Matters [1] is a leader in quality assurance for online education and has received national recognition for its scalable, peer-based approach.  It is designed to promote student learning and is integral to continuous quality improvement.   It is part of OpenEd’s quality assurance processes and is introduced as part of our initial discussions with faculty when developing or redeveloping online courses.  The rubric used in the quality review is based on national standards of best practice, research findings, and instructional design principles.  It focuses on the design of the course rather than the delivery of course academic content.