Director of Research, Quality Matters
Adjunct Assistant Professor (Online), The Pennsylvania State University
Director of Distance Learning, Carroll Community College
Kay Shattuck (D.Ed., Penn State) is the Founding Director Emerita and Senior Advisor for Research at Quality Matters (QM). She was part of the original Maryland team that developed QM’s first course‑design standards in 2003 and served as QM’s Director of Research through 2019. Her academic home has been Penn State’s College of Education (Learning and Performance Systems/Lifelong Learning and Adult Education), where she taught online for the World Campus for many years. Earlier, she directed distance learning at Carroll Community College (1996–2008). Shattuck’s work centers on quality assurance in online and distance learning—linking research to practice, continuous improvement of course design standards and peer review processes, norms of teaching and participation in course enhancement, academic rigor, and online information literacy. She is an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Distance Education and remains affiliated with Penn State’s American Center for the Study of Distance Education.
An inter‑institutional, faculty‑centered framework comprising research‑informed design standards and a collegial peer‑review process to diagnose and improve online course design quality. The framework is iteratively updated through literature reviews, community feedback, and analysis of large‑scale review data, and is used to benchmark and assure quality across institutions.
Online Learning • Journal
This large‑scale quantitative study examined whether three institutional practices—QM‑aligned faculty professional development, intentional course design to meet QM standards, and internal pre‑reviews—are associated with outcomes of official interinstitutional peer reviews of online courses. Using data from 5,436 QM course reviews (2014–2020) across 360 institutions, the authors found that intentional PD, QM‑aligned design, and informal pre‑reviews were each positively related to courses meeting quality thresholds during official reviews, suggesting these processes function as effective levers for continuous improvement and benchmarking of online course quality.
American Journal of Distance Education • Journal
Frames Quality Matters as a sustained design‑based research effort that transforms evidence‑based practices in online education into scalable tools and processes for course‑level improvement. The paper describes QM’s growth, the role of peer review, and how iterative feedback and data inform refinement of standards and services.
Internet Learning • Journal
Describes how Quality Matters’ course‑design rubric and peer‑review processes are iteratively refined through cycles of literature review, stakeholder feedback, data from thousands of reviews, and expert panels. The paper positions QM’s evolution as scholarship of integration and application—translating research and practitioner insights into actionable standards and guidance that support scalable, faculty‑centered course improvement.
Internet Learning • Journal
Reports a research project that examined links between learners’ readiness indicators and success (final grades) in online courses while controlling for course and instructor quality via QM certification. Using the SmarterMeasure Learning Readiness Indicator and course outcomes, results point to meaningful relationships between aspects of readiness and student performance, with implications for advising and course design.
Collected Essays on Learning and Teaching • Journal
Introduces Quality Matters (QM) as a faculty‑centered, inter‑institutional quality assurance program for online learning. The article outlines the QM Rubric’s origins in research and best practices and explains its peer‑review process, in which trained faculty colleagues provide diagnostic feedback for course design improvement to meet an established quality threshold.
Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration • Journal
Reports on the development of the Quality Matters program within MarylandOnline, a statewide consortium. It details phases of collaborative planning that produced a replicable system of faculty peer review for assuring and continuously improving the design quality of online courses—responding to emerging demands for demonstrable quality in online distance education.
American Journal of Distance Education • Journal
Editorial synthesizing long‑standing and emerging lines of inquiry in distance and online education and highlighting opportunities across micro‑, meso‑, and macro‑level research. It encourages leveraging established frameworks while extending scholarship toward under‑researched system‑level topics such as access, equity, ethics, and globalization.
American Journal of Distance Education • Journal
Editorial urging scholars and practitioners to ground studies and practice in the long arc of distance education research. It argues that rigorous literature reviews—connecting current questions to decades of prior work and frameworks—are essential for advancing the field beyond repeatedly addressing the same questions as if they were new.
In A. A. Piña, V. L. Lowell, & B. R. Harris (Eds.), The Business of Innovating Online • Chapter
Discusses how institutions can sustain quality assurance as they scale and innovate in online education. The chapter outlines strategies for integrating evidence‑based quality standards and peer review into change initiatives so that experimentation and continuous improvement proceed hand‑in‑hand.
In M. G. Moore & W. C. Diehl (Eds.), Handbook of Distance Education (4th ed.) • Chapter
A synthesis chapter that surveys why, when, where, and how faculty teach online, and who participates. It reviews research on motivation, participation, competencies, and supports for effective online teaching and connects these to practical implications for institutions and instructors.
Stylus (now Routledge/Taylor & Francis) • Book
An edited volume offering a comprehensive view of quality assurance in online higher education. Chapters address improving online teaching, using analytics for quality, accessibility as a quality dimension, assuring course design, learner support and academic resources, advising and counseling, and the role and realities of accreditation—providing coordinated recommendations for raising institutional standards of quality.