Study on the quality perspectives and evaluation framework of online internationalized courses in higher education

In recent years, the online internationalization of higher education has increasingly emerged as a significant trend in the digital transformation of education. As a primary vehicle for this trend, online courses urgently require the establishment of a quality evaluation system. Existing research has predominantly focused on traditional offline courses, lacking an evaluation framework tailored to the characteristics of “online internationalization”. This study conducted interviews with 16 stakeholders—including learners, administrators, practitioners, and researchers—and employed qualitative coding to identify quality perspectives and key elements for online internationalization courses. Based on these findings, a multi-stakeholder integrated quality evaluation framework was developed.The research summarizes five core quality perspectives—demand-oriented, outcome-oriented, system-integrity, student-experience, and cultural-exchange—along with four supplementary perspectives. The course evaluation framework encompasses nine key elements: course objectives, instructional design, faculty competence, interactive communication, learning support, technological assurance, implementation effectiveness, continuous improvement, and societal impact. Among these, instructional design, implementation effectiveness, interactive communication, and technological assurance are identified as core evaluation priorities. This framework accommodates diverse value orientations and provides theoretical foundations and practical references for the development, assessment, and continuous improvement of online internationalization courses in Chinese higher education institutions.