Christian Stracke (Germany), Convenor of the working group on quality standards (WG5) of the standardization committee SC36 and initiator and moderator of the session, is satisfied with the results: "The whole range of quality perspectives and questions was raised by the lively discussion leading to the challenges for the common development of quality standards in future!"

In his welcome address, Dr. Andreas Goerdeler from the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology emphasized Germany's leading position in the field of quality standardization and the great impact and contribution of the initiative "Quality ELearning in Germany" (Q.E.D.) to the country's achievements in the field.

Four short statements from speakers engaged in the different standardization initiatives prepared the ground for the discussion:

Dr. Tae In Han from the eLearning Institute of KGIT (South Korea) and Dr. Jan Pawlowski from the University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany) explained the trends and future developments in quality as well as the results already achieved by the standardization committee SC36 WG5 with particular focus on the first quality standard (ISO/IEC 19796-1).

Sung-Wook Shin from the Federal Institute for K-12 education KERIS (South Korea) and Prof. Dr. Kenji Hirata from the Toyo University of Tokyo (Japan) reported on the current standardization activities in their respective countries in the field of eLearning quality and their integration into the SC36 ongoing quality standard projects.

Prof. Dr. Erik Duval from the University KU Leuven (Belgium) pointed out the special contribution that metadata can provide for the interoperability and quality assurance in eLearning based on his experience during the development of the first IEEE metadata standard for learning objects (LOM).

Dr. Dai Griffiths from the UK's University of Bolton's CETIS, which is engaged in the further development of IMS Learning Design, concluded the statements with general thoughts about the importance, the potentials, and the limits of the applicability of quality standards in eLearning.

At this juncture, an active and lively discussion started about the future of quality standards in eLearning and their implementation. "I especially enjoyed the questions from the corporate representatives on the precise benefits of quality standards: We have to meet the needs of all stakeholders to ensure their application", summarized Christian Stracke, taking inventory of the discussion.

"The debate on common and widely accepted quality standards is open: Continuation of the exchange and harmonization between the standardization organization is now the big task!"

Overall, this session at Online Educa was a valuable step towards the international long-term commitment to and the general consensus regarding quality standards in eLearning.