The Office of Academic Affairs and the Center for Teaching and Learning congratulates Jamie Buffington-Adams, assistant dean for the School of Education and assistant professor, for earning a Quality Matters Certification for her online course, Education of the Socially and Emotionally Disturbed (EDUC-K343). Her course is the first at Indiana University East to earn official Quality Matters certification.

Jamie Buffington-Adams

Quality Matters (QM) is a nonprofit organization that provides the gold standard for certifying the quality of online courses and programs. During the QM process, courses are reviewed by a team of three faculty members with current experience in teaching online. The review team uses the QM Rubric for Higher Education, which includes 43 specific review standards.

David Becker, Quality Matters course review manager for the IU system, notes that “in order to be successful, the course must meet all 21 essential standards and earn 85 percent of the total possible points. Dr. Buffington-Adams’s course exceeded these requirements.”

Jerry Wilde, dean of the School of Education, said, “Dr. Buffington-Adams has been a leader in online instruction since she arrived on the IU East campus. The faculty in the School of Education rely on her expertise, so it comes as no surprise that she has earned this distinction.”

In addition to her role in online course development, Buffington-Adams serves as a QM peer reviewer for online courses on and off campus.

Buffington-Adams’ QM certification is an important milestone for IU East. As TJ Rivard, associate vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, said, “IU East has been a leader in online education since the 90s, offering some of the first online courses in the state and developing some of the first online degree programs as well. Dr. Buffington-Adams’ accomplishment in receiving QM certification continues that leadership for us.”

IU East offers a large number of online courses and online degree programs, serving students from a number of states and internationally.

IU East’s online degree programs offer an Indiana University degree to students throughout Indiana, nationally and internationally. IU East offers 11 options for students to complete their bachelor’s degree online in English with an emphasis in Technical and Professional Writing, Mathematics, Natural Science and Mathematics with a Mathematics Concentration, Communication Studies, Business Administration, Criminal Justice, Political Science, Psychology, General Studies, and an RN to BSN Mobility Option. IU East also offers a Graduate Certificate in Composition Studies and a Graduate Certificate in Mathematics. For more information on IU East’s online degree completion programs, visit iue.edu/online.

The administration, faculty, and staff of IU East are dedicated to offering students a high-quality education. QM certification offers just one example of how faculty are working to ensure the quality of online courses offered at IU East.

Michelle Malott, executive vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, said,“I applaud Dr. Buffington-Adams for her accomplishment and very much appreciate her leadership in online instruction. Associate Vice Chancellor Rivard and myself both recognize the importance of this recognition for the campus as we try to stay competitive with the ever increasing number of programs in the world of online education. It will be important for as many of our courses as possible to become QM certified, and we look forward to many more faculty taking their online courses through this process.”

For more information on IU East’s Center for Teaching and Learning, visit iue.edu/ctl, or the School of Education, visit iue.edu/education.