Online Education is full of highly skilled professionals in instructional focus areas to support advancing the online learning environment and the student experience.
World-Class Expertise
One of the key differentiators from other online education providers is the unique blend of expertise housed within the Online Education community. As one of the leading institutions setting the path for distance education, we took guidance from the proven resident services and academic aspects to continuously integrate our knowledge and mastery of online operations. Built upon Penn State’s attributes, we innovate and hire experienced practitioners into all our units. This depth of talent is what sets us apart as a leader.
Course Design and Development
The design and development of online courses is achieved through the seamless integration of instructional designers, multimedia developers, educational technologists, and quality assurance professionals working together to assure the highest quality learning experiences for students at a distance.
Learning Design
Experts within the Learning Design unit develop World Campus courses in collaboration with faculty subject matter experts. Our learning design teams have graduate-level training in instructional systems design, educational psychology, curriculum and instruction, adult education, or related fields. Integrating learning theory and the best technologies for effective learning outcomes, they ensure online courses meet accessibility standards and comply with all copyright regulations. In performing extensive testing and quality assurance checks, they continuously monitor and improve courses to align with current technological capabilities and desired learning outcomes.
Faculty Development
Faculty Development offers a variety of programs to provide faculty and instructors with the tools and resources to teach in the online environment and deliver engaging, high-quality courses. Whether you are a full professor or graduate teaching assistant, our programs provide meaningful content and strategies that can also complement traditional resident instruction or be used as standalone resources.
Our courses and certificates are available to all Penn State faculty, current graduate students, administrators, and staff at no charge.
Explore Available Faculty Development Courses.
Quality Matters
Learning Design coordinates the Quality Matters (QM) initiative at the University. Leading quality assurance in online and innovative digital teaching and learning environments, QM is a research-based rubric and course review system for measuring the quality of online course design. Online Education leads the implementation of QM and provides trainings and resources to all Penn State faculty and staff to evaluate the quality of the online courses they create or support.
Visit Quality Matters at Penn State.
Accessibility
The Accessibility team specializes in identifying solutions for accessibility issues in online courses. Our goals include facilitating compliance with Penn State policy and U.S. legal accessibility standards, providing leadership in developing and implementing best practices in accessibility, coordinating academic accommodations, working with external vendors to provide accessible versions of media, preparing faculty and student training materials, conducting and disseminating informal research in online course accessibility, and determining and addressing access challenges specific to special audiences, such as the military.
The team creates staff training and faculty development resources that assist in preparing accessible online courses and is also available to provide presentations and consultation on the topic of accessibility, as well as individual accessibility reviews of online courses.
Visit Accessibility at Penn State for more information.
Military Enrollment and Advising Staff
Penn State World Campus provides service members, veterans, and military families with the flexibility and convenience needed to achieve their educational goals. World Campus military students have access to a dedicated, specially trained military support team. Many members of the team are veterans who apply their first-hand military knowledge to help students succeed. Our dedicated team of experts helps students navigate admissions, leverage benefits, manage the impact of deployments, and more.
