The UOC heads an international group to define quality standards for e-learning
Experts from top international online universities met with the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) in October to discuss the main indicators for assessing the quality of e-learning courses. Delegates from Canada's Athabasca University, USA's Penn State University, UK's Open University, Australia's Charles Sturt University, South Africa's UNISA and UAE's Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University signed a "Declaration of Support for High-quality Standards in Online Education".
The aim of the conference is to improve the reputation and credibility of online education around the world and to agree on what criteria and indicators will allow it to be assessed. Unlike bricks-and-mortar universities, for which there is a widely applied range of tools, criteria and indicators available, there are few instruments for assessing virtual institutions and comparing the quality of the teaching they offer.
"Although tools for applying benchmarks to improve quality do exist, new tools are needed to raise quality standards. 'Quite good' is not good enough: the reputation of online education will be enhanced when institutions are committed to achieving higher quality standards. Initially, this will allow some institutions to stand out, but in the long term it will benefit online education as a whole by boosting its reputation", argues Albert Sangrà, academic director of the UNESCO Chair in Education and Technology for Social Change and lecturer in the UOC's Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences.
One of the stumbling blocks in this debate is how to assess the quality of the teaching offered by virtual universities when teaching and learning do not take place 100% online. Parts of the courses of some virtual universities are provided in the classroom.
In two work sessions, the group established a set of categories for assessing the quality of the teaching and the e-learning model:
- Teaching and learning
- Research and innovation
- Social impact
- Support and organizational services
The experts outlined the quality indicators to be included under each of these headings. These will be submitted for consideration by international associations, other top universities and government agencies with an interest in guaranteeing the quality of online education.
Creation of an international consortium
Led by the UOC, over the coming months the experts will continue to define the quality indicators to be applied to virtual universities and assess the possibility of creating an international consortium to systematically and precisely establish a set of e-learning quality indicators. The group plans to meet again in March 2016 to agree on a new document to be submitted to the rectors and presidents of the member universities.
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