creating a standard of excellence in e-learning
DESCRIPTION
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. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Creating a standard of excellence in e-learningELUE 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
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.
CONTEXT OF OPERATION
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 qualityassurance and accreditation.These express the added value e-learning bringsinto 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 e-learning 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 (on-line) 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 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
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: on-line manual extended with a good practice guide
EADTU input and maintenance
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