title: A primer on quality indicators of distance education.
abstract: In the past decade, there has been an enormous growth of distance education courses and programs in higher education. The growth of distance education is particularly evident in the field of health education. However, the enormous potential of distance education is tempered by one overriding question: How does one ensure that distance education coursework and degrees are of high quality? To this end, the purpose of this study is twofold: to identify quality indicators of distance education and to provide implications of the identified quality indicators for health education researchers and practitioners. The results of the study reveal common benchmarks and quality indicators that all parties deem important in designing, implementing, and evaluating distance education courses and programs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Education and Promotion at East Carolina University, in Greenville, NC 27858, USA. chaneyb@ecu.edu
authors.forename: Beth H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Chaney
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Eddy
authors.forename: Steve M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Dorman
authors.forename: Linda L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Glessner
authors.forename: B Lee
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Green
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lara-Alecio
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum; D020375:Education, Distance / Q000592:standards*; D040381:Education, Public Health Professional / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D015397:Program Evaluation