Master of Science Quality Assurance Program at California State University, Dominguez Hills Celebrates 20 Years Online
The First Online Program Ever Approved by WASC
In the 1980s, the CSU Chancellor’s Office established a group to create new, innovative programs for the CSU system. In time, these programs were turned over to individual campuses, as they were seen as competitors to existing Extended Education units. California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) and San Jose State University (SJSU) took over the MS Quality Assurance program. CSUDH was chosen due to its proximity to Southern California’s aerospace industry, and SJSU because it was in the heart of Silicon Valley.
Quality Assurance was a booming on-campus program for Dominguez Hills. When Gene Watson assumed his position as the Director of Quality Assurance programs at CSUDH, however, he knew the program was in trouble. The cold war was over, and Southern California’s aerospace industry was in steep decline.
“I went to teach an off-campus course we were doing in Anaheim, and one person showed up. That’s when I knew that something had to be done,” he recalled.
Knowing that there were quality professionals in all 50 states as well as other countries, Watson teamed with Marge Gordon, dean of Extended Education, Program Director Scott MacKay and Instructor Bill Trappen to create a “correspondence” program for the MSQA. Before its launch, however the program evolved to use e-mail and the newly formed World Wide Web, and was launched in January 1996. It was the first online masters program ever approved by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
Today, the MS Quality Assurance program is strong, with more than 250 students enrolled. In 2002, a BS Quality Assurance program was added. “We had a number of quality assurance professionals who only had an associates degree contacting us to offer a bachelors program,” said Watson. “Many of these people had more experience than people who had their masters degree.”
“Quality is a blend of the natural and behavioral sciences,” said Watson. “It has grown over the last 100 years, as some of the first time and work studies were done by Thomas Watson. But the field really wasn’t respected until Edward Demming and Joseph Juran went to Japan and applied quality principles to Japanese automotive manufacturing techniques. Once the Japanese came in and kicked General Motor’s behind, that got the world’s attention.”
When asked about the future of quality assurance, Watson cites Juran, who believes that quality concepts will be used more and more in measuring the quality of the environment.
Watson believes that quality concepts can be integrated into every level of educational instruction. “The concepts that are used in quality assurance are not that difficult to blend into primary and secondary education,” says Watson. “If students could come out of their initial education with the basic tenants of quality, they could apply these concepts and improve upon many different professional fields. The steps are simple, but they must be continually practiced,” he concluded.