During the 2001-02 and 2003-04 academic years, the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) took part in the Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency (AQU Catalunya) Pro-QU programme with the assessment of three degrees. This programme focused on the assessment of first- and second-cycle degrees and was used as the basic methodology for the global assessment of university teaching.

For this first virtual teaching assessment experience, AQU Catalunya saw the need to create the VIRTUAL programme for the assessment of virtual teaching and institutions, taking the PRO-QU teaching assessment system as a model, adapted to the specific nature of virtual education, and incorporating international assessment specifications for this type of teaching. The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) institutional assessment was carried out during the 2006-07 academic year in accordance with the Guia d’avaluació institucional dels ensenyaments de formació virtual (Institutional assessment guide for e-teaching). This assessment was conducted through the commitment acquired by the University with the Government of Catalonia through the Contract Programme 2006-2009.

Institutional assessment applied to the UOC as a whole analysed aspects that are common to all degrees: mission, vision, human resources policies, etc. This assessment provided a detailed description of the institutional elements that impact on the quality of individual teaching.

Once institutional assessment was complete, a total of nine degrees from the Faculties of Law and Political Science, Psychology and Education Sciences, Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications and, finally, Economics and Business were assessed in accordance with the Guia d’avaluació dels ensenyaments de formació virtual. Guia d’avaluació de les titulacions (Institutional assessment guide for e-teaching. Degree assessment guide). Assessment focused on evaluating the suitability of the different institutional policies on the functioning of the degrees, viewing the results of the different processes in the degrees assessed. The results of these assessments acted as a reference in the design of new degrees within the EHEA framework.