The COE has adopted and codified the following institutional quality standards governing all online courses at SMU. These standards apply uniformly across all schools and colleges and are enforced through OPS review and reporting.
All online courses at SMU are held to the Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric as the institution's common quality standard for online course design.
Minimum passing threshold: Courses must achieve a score of 85% or higher on the QM rubric. All non-negotiable standards must be met.
Five-year course re-review cycle: All approved online courses are subject to a mandatory QM re-review every five years to ensure continued compliance with institutional quality standards.
Five-year faculty certification renewal: Faculty teaching online at SMU must re-certify every five years through completion of QM training and the OPS technology orientation course.
Before an online course may be offered at SMU, the following requirements must be met:
The COE maintains institutional definitions for course modalities. An online (distance) course achieves 22.5 or more contact hours through online delivery; limited in-person meetings may be scheduled to reach 45 total contact hours. All courses scheduled as online must adhere to the SMU Online Course Development Process. "Distance Education" and "Remote Instruction" are no longer valid modes of instruction at SMU.
For complete modality definitions, see the Course Modality Definitions document.
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