Tool for Quality Assessment in eLearning
Heerlen (NL), March 2009 - E-xcellence is a web-based instrument focusing on eLearning in higher education. It is the main product of a two-year project, undertaken under the auspices of EADTU (The European Association of Distance Teaching Universities) and involving a pool of experts from twelve European institutions with a stake in eLearning developments. Quality Assurance in Higher Education (HE) has received a great deal of attention at the institutional, national, and European levels through validation centres, universities (and their umbrella organisations), quality agencies, national Ministries of Education, and the like.
These have established systems to cover the full organisational and content-related quality assurance of HE institutions and their programmes. However, few of these systems have so far developed a focus on the parameters of quality assurance governing eLlearning. This has, therefore, been the objective of the E-xcellence project.
It is not the intention of E-xcellence to interfere in any way with existing systems of quality assurance, but rather to supplement them in regard to eLearning-specific issues. It is assumed that institutions and regulatory bodies will have a defined set of processes that provide for the development, monitoring, evaluation, and enhancement of HE provision.
E-xcellence offers a supplementary instrument that can be used with these QA processes to allow the consideration of eLearning developments as a specific feature. An important aspect of E-xcellence is that it offers a European-wide set of benchmarks independent of particular institutional or national systems that provide guidance to educational improvement.
The Quickscan provides a quick orientation to all relevant aspects of eLearning. The aspects that are assessed are specific to eLearning and are related to categories of:
- Curriculum design
- Course design
- Course delivery
- Services (student support; staff support)
- Management (institutional strategies)
The full assessment will enable users to determine the performance of their eLearning programmes and to pinpoint the requirements for further enhancement. It is a self-assessment approach with an on-site visit by an eLearning expert.
The objective of the instrument is to give institutions a tool for assessing their course(s) and programmes with a specific focus on eLearning issues. With the instrument, institutions can map their eLearning efforts on the different sections and document and present the available evidence.
The instrument forms the input for the self-evaluation report that the institutions write for the visiting expert. At the end of the full-assessment, the expert will deliver a report on overall performance and recommendations for improvement.
