On the one hand, online learning programs should be standardized to a certain degree to ensure they are usable and effective. On the other hand, academic faculty have long had a key role in course design and expect agency and autonomy when doing this work. There's a tension here, and that's what this article (14 page PDF) explores, defining bounded standardization "as a practical decision protocol for determining when a course-design element should be required, recommended as a default, or left to contextual faculty or programme choice." After all, "the strongest case for standardisation is not that every course should look or function the same. It is that predictable learner-facing architecture can reduce avoidable variation." There's a proposed test requiring institutions to justify consistency before creating requirements, and a set of four implementation conditions.
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