Online Education Governance & Quality

SMU's Commitment to Online Quality

Southern Methodist University is committed to delivering online education that meets or exceeds the same standards of academic rigor, integrity, and student experience as on-campus instruction. Since 2022, SMU has maintained a formal, documented governance framework that provides institutional oversight of online course and program quality — from executive strategy through course-level review and ongoing improvement.

Executive authority rests with the Council for Online Education (COE), operating under joint oversight of Academic Affairs and OIT. Standards governance and faculty coordination are carried out by the FTC Online Education Sub-Committee (formerly OESTE), embedded within SMU's Faculty Technology Council since 2022. Day-to-day quality review and reporting are managed by Online Production Services (OPS) within OIT Academic Technology Services. Individual schools and colleges retain academic and faculty accountability at the program level.

All online courses at SMU are held to the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric as the institution's uniform standard for online course design. All new courses undergo QM review before first delivery; all approved courses are subject to re-review on a five-year cycle. Review findings are tracked, reported to governance bodies, and used to inform institutional resource and policy decisions.

This page is SMU's single authoritative reference for online education governance and quality — maintained by OIT Academic Technology Services on behalf of the Council for Online Education, with content coordination from the Office of Institutional Planning & Effectiveness, and updated annually.