Four leading organizations in higher education and digital learning–the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), Quality Matters (QM), University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA), and WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET)–today announced a partnership to establish the National Council for Online Education (NCOE), creating a formidable voice for online and digital education within higher education policy and thought leadership.

Facilitating the development and offering of high-quality online courses and programs can be challenging under the best of circumstances. Facilitating the transition of classes designed for face-to-face pedagogical practices, including the potential development of new types of assessments, into an online format during an academic term is challenging work.

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) provides an opportunity to explore academic continuity plans for institutions who do not have them and test the viability of their work for those with plans in place.