ACADEMIC STAFF PERCEPTIONS OF QUALITY MATTERS TO SUPPORT INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS IN BLENDED AND ONLINE LEARNING

Abstract

Over the past decade, international student enrolment in Canadian postsecondary institutions has increased significantly. Academic staff - faculty, instructional designers, and curriculum consultants - play a central role in supporting international students through the design of inclusive and accessible blended and online courses, often without sufficient professional development or institutional support. This qualitative interpretive case study explored how academic staff at a publicly funded Ontario college, referred to as Blue Jay College, perceived the role of the Quality Matters (QM) framework in supporting international students in blended and online learning environments. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with ten participants representing faculty, instructional designers, and curriculum consultant roles and analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis. Findings indicated that consistency and structure were perceived as important in supporting international student success, that gaps existed between instructional expectations and institutional supports, and that sustaining quality under conditions of workload pressure and precarity was challenging. Analysis indicated that while QM was perceived as a valuable tool to support consistency in course design, its use depended on the level of support available within individual schools and did not reflect a coordinated institutional approach. Participants emphasized the importance of professional development, manageable workloads, and stable working conditions in sustaining inclusive course design practices. As a result, implementation remained inconsistent and largely dependent on individual initiative. The findings suggest that without a coordinated institutional approach, course design practices were perceived to vary across Blue Jay College, contributing to inconsistent and potentially inequitable learning experiences for international students across programs and disciplines. Strengthening institutional support for academic staff is therefore essential to support more consistent and inclusive course design practices in blended and online learning environments.