ABSTRACT
This chapter applies the lens of change management theory to quality assurance processes to frame a discussion of quality, quality standards, and quality assurance processes in online education. The disruption to higher education caused by the emergence of online learning and the scope of its seemingly random implementation resulted rather quickly in calls for ensuring quality in online education even as institutions were creating and innovating. Although describing what quality looks like and establishing standards for assessment is important work, ensuring quality is a completely separate endeavor. A quality assurance process is the way the hard work of creating effective quality standards is used to maintain, replicate, and improve the quality of an innovation. In whatever way online education became part of an educational organization, it is safe to say that it was accompanied by a call for ensuring quality of online learning.
