Transcript Dia 1 - Fondazione CRUI

Creating a standard of excellence in e-learning
ELUE meeting, ROME 31st of May 2006
George Ubachs
Quality Assurance in HE
ENQA-report of February 2005.
Agreed upon by European ministers of Education
In Bergen May 2005:
• Standards and guidelines for QA in the
European HE area.
• Based on experience from national quality
agencies
CONTEXT OF OPERATION
E-learning is becoming increasingly important
in both mainstream and continuing HE as learning
platforms and pedagogical methods improve.
Improving e-learning will ultimately support the
Bologna objectives and EADTU’s “e-Bologna” by:
• creating a European Area of Higher Education
• ensuring co-operation between universities and
raise competitiveness of European universities.
MISSING
European standards/benchmarks
specifically for e-learning in HE
For example:
• criteria based on ease of access
• new forms of interaction between staff and students
and students between them
• flexibility, personalisation
and other pedagogical aspects that are more relevant to
e-learning than criteria that are traditionally used for quality
assurance and accreditation.
These express the added value e-learning brings
into higher education
E-xcellence: creating a standard of
excellence in e-learning
Main Contributors:
EADTU
OULU-University (Finland)
OUNL (Netherlands)
OUUK (United Kingdom)
with support from:
CNED (France)
UNED (Spain)
UOC (Spain)
EITSA (Estonia)
NETTUNO (Italy)
APERTUS (Hungary)
NVAO (Netherlands/Belgium)
European University Association
(EUA)
General objective
The general objective for QA in e-learning is to
optimise the learning process and offer assurance
to stakeholders that e-learning provision is of high
quality.
The QA in e-learning system has to be
complementary to other national quality assurance
systems related to content, staff and infrastructure.
General objective
• To establish a framework of quality criteria for
the development, operation and evaluation of elearning programmes
• To establish an appropriate set of performance
indicators, parameters and guidelines by which
the quality of e-learning programmes may be
measured in a validation or accreditation context
• Threshold and excellence levels to be defined
APPROACH
•Analysis of existing quality processes of partners
and/or requirements of national quality organisations in
the light of the criteria developed
•Making inventory of missing criteria (by 12 e-learning
experts)
•Stakeholders consultation procedure
•Synthesis of the best aspects of these
•Translation of these parameters into a quality
assessment tool and guide
•testing in test-beds and subsequent use across
participants
Results so far
• Set of (54) criteria agreed upon after feedback
from stakeholders
• These cover institutional, pedagogical,
technical, ethical and management aspects
of e-learning organised into the four main
categories of :




Management (institutional and programme levels)
Products (course design and delivery)
Services (student and staff support)
Monitoring and Improvement (evaluation and
enhancement)
Two examples of criteria
• (Management) The institution has an e-learning
strategy that is part of the general strategic planning of
the institution and the development of its educational
programmes
• (Products) The curriculum offers opportunities for (online) contacts between fellow students and with teachers,
researchers, professionals, etc. to help develop a critical
attitude to study
Threshold and excellence level
• Threshold level to set out minimum
requirements for use essentially by institution’s
own self-evaluation and approval mechanisms.
Will be applicable to a variety of institutional and
programme contexts, including blended learning,
to assess fitness for purpose
• Excellence level to set out a more extensive set
of indicators for rating high quality. Also widely
applicable but of more value to dedicated elearning
Assessing the “e” in e-learning
QA internal and
external
Accreditation
Scope: Quality improvement,
advice and guidance
 Institutional and
programme level
 Self-evaluation and
visitations involving
EADTU experts
 Cooperation with EUA,
ENQA and ICDE
 Minimum requirements
 Guidance
 Descriptive
EADTU input and
maintenance
Scope: Accreditation and
labelling
 Programme and
course level
 Third party evaluation
by EADTU network of
experts
 Scale of excellence
 Setting standards
 (Partly) prescriptive
 Full manual is used for
both procedures
 Recommendations of both
assessments refer to: online manual extended with
a good practice guide
Thank you for your attention
www.eadtu.nl/e-xcellence
Contact: [email protected]