Course quality is not about how hard a course is or how brilliant the instructor is. It is mostly a property of design: whether the course is clear, well organized, aligned, accessible, fair in its assessment, and engaging for students. A high-quality course is one a student can navigate, understand what is expected, and succeed in if they do the work.

Thinking about quality means stepping back and looking at your course the way a reviewer or a new student would, rather than the way you, who built it, already understand it. That shift in perspective is the whole skill. The rest of this course gives you the specific things to look for and a process for checking them.