It can be difficult to discuss the quality of online education as what constitutes quality is a complex issue and no single agreed-upon definition exists. Many factors can come into play when discussing the quality of online offerings, such as course design and facilitation, student academic achievement, student and faculty satisfaction, and retention. I’ve served as the director of online education at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse since 2007, and I believe the five strategies outlined in this article have helped us elevate the quality of our online courses and programs.
Beyond the Credential Factory: Why Higher Education Must Shift from Management to Flourishing
For decades, higher education leadership has obsessed over “student success” as a purely operational metric. We track retention and graduation rates and postgraduation outcomes with the same linear precision that
Yoshitaka Iwasaki
August 3, 2026
