As online learning becomes more mainstream, institutions are increasingly looking to assure “quality” in their online courses. The research based Quality Matters (QM) program has received national recognition for their approach to this issue. However, Quality Matters is primarily a review tool and was not initially designed to be used in course creation. Because online learning is relatively new to Miami University, we adapted Quality Matters to guide our course creation process. Rather than developing courses and reviewing quality after the fact, we develop online courses from the start using Quality Matters standards. Our focus is on providing a quality learning experience for students and teaching experience for faculty. We recognize that faculty are not only subject matter experts, but experts on the students they teach. Consequently, faculty are highly involved in the course creation process. Faculty are typically introduced to the QM at the beginning of the course creation process. In effort to guarantee alignment and encourage innovation in the course, faculty are asked to approach the course creation as if they are developing a “new” course. From the course objectives, faculty determine themes or modules and then specific topics of study within those themes. Measureable, topic-level (or unit level) objectives are then written. At this point, we introduce faculty to our course planning grid (see Planning Grid link below). The design of the planning grid helps reinforce key QM ideas such as unit level objectives, alignment and learner interaction. The planning grid also helps faculty identify “busy work” or activities not directly related to objectives and eliminate or revise them so they do align with objectives. Faculty then work with an instructional designer to create the course modules. Faculty are expected to generate and post most of their own materials. This allows designers to work with several faculty at once and guarantees that faculty can revise their course as needed. In an effort to provide a familiar and welcoming online environment for students, we ask faculty to follow a general outline for course structure. This outline also includes required QM statements such as information for students with disabilities or how to access resources. Rather than expecting each faculty member to create these statements from scratch, we offer to import a “template” (see Sample Statements link below) into their course site that they can customize. This template offers writing suggestions from experienced online teachers, examples and pre-created links to resources. Once faculty feel a course is ready to be offered online, we provide them with a course checklist (see Course Checklist link below) based on QM standards (standards are referenced on the checklist). This checklist was designed for faculty to evaluate their own courses and is not meant to bar a course from being offered. Like the formal QM review, it is meant to provide the faculty member with guidance on how to improve their course.