Eventuallly, a certification program is needed that competency development of an online instructor. This certification structure required of will also support how institutions (colleges as well as profit and nonprofit universities) hire, evaluate, and rank the performance of online instructors using the proposed constructivist competency model. As higher education institutions focus on retention of the adult learner population, a shift must occur in the performance standards required of online instructors. These performance standards must be clearly defined and communicated by an institution if it is to remain competitive in the industry of delivering online coursed. The proposed constructivist competency model in this study will establish the performance standards for measuring q quality online learning course.