QUALITY ASSURANCE OF ONLINE, OPEN AND FLEXIBLE HIGHER EDUCATION CONCEPTUAL ISSUES ANTHONY F. CAMILLERI SEQUENT CONSULTATION SEMINAR MARCH 2016 – INSTITUTE JOŽEF ŠTEFAN, LJUBLJANA

Open Educational Resources (OER) describe any kind of digital media which are released under licenses which allow for:  use and reuse/repurposing/modification of the resources  encompass all types of digital media WHAT IS OPEN EDUCATION? Depending on the definition, OER may include: digital resources only, or a mix of digital and ‘traditional’ resources resources produced with an explicit educational aim, or any resource used as part of an educational process resources which are e the public domain, or resources which allow use and reuse merely for educational purposes

WHAT IS OPEN EDUCATION? Social OpennessTechnical OpennessLicense OpennessFinancial Openness most participativeleast restrictive most affordable Student, lecturer & Broader Community Student Centred Lecturer Centred Open Proprietary/Open Proprietary Public Domain Limited-Public Copyrighted Free Opportunity Cost Low Cost Charged increasing levels of openness Hodgkinson-Williams, C., & Gray, E. (2009). Degrees of openness: The emergence of open educational resources at the University of Cape Town. International Journal of Education and Development Using ICT, 5(5). Retrieved from

WHAT ABOUT MOOCS? MOOC is defined as:  massive: with theoretically no limit to enrolment  open: allowing anyone to participate, usually at no cost  online: with learning activities typically taking place over the web  course: structured around a set of learning goals in a defined study area don’t miss the forest for the trees

EDUCATIONAL CHANGE IS INEVITABLE MOOCs (et al) are a symptom of change not, the result of it

TECHNOLOGICAL TRENDS Ubiquitous Computing access to computing power any time anywhere Open Data access to any information any time anywhere Learning Analytics ability to base teaching decisions on data Semantic Search ability to talk and converse with machines Collaboration Technologies ability to collaborate with anybody in real-time Personalisation Technologies move away from traditional massification concepts

SOCIAL CHANGES MEAN INCREASED DEMANDS FROM EDUCATION  provide graduates to supply the knowledge economy  increase efficiency of processes  extend reach of programmes  adapt content to ever-changing priorities do more, better, with less

RESULTING TRENDS IN ONLINE, OPEN AND FLEXIBLE HIGHER EDUCATION Growing Role of OER Unbundling of Education Emergence of Non-Traditional Providers Collaboration to keep up with technology Increasing demand for recognition & portability

GROWTH IN OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES April 2014: 3045 learning repositories – 7% growth year-on-year with 12 million learning objects Source: repository66.org

QA-RELATED ISSUES TO CONSIDER How to adapt teacher performance metrics to consider use/re-use of their resources? How does open resources affect concepts of efficiency?

UNBUNDLING OF EDUCATION A Higher Education Experience is a gateway to a multitude of services explicit and implicit

THREE SCENARIOS FOR UNBUNDLING

QA ISSUES LINKED TO UNBUNDLING increases student choice (link to SCL) allows for increased specialisation of functions of HE stimulates innovation and quality through increased attention on niche activities implicit functions of Higher Education not necessarily specifically covered by criteria is the whole of an HE qualification more than the sum of its parts?

EMERGENCE OF NON-TRADITIONAL PROVIDERS ‘ Hybrid Providers’ mergers of HEIs and Technology companies collaborating on course provision, e.g. Coursera Teaching & Examination Centres teach HE level qualifications using licensed content from universities RPL Universities institutions offering recognition, credentialisation and add-on teaching for RPL Exam-Only Companies designing and/or providing examinations (incl. automated assessment) Publishers providing not only books but online learning communities

QUALITY ISSUES TO CONSIDER none of these models are explicitly regulated especially not at international level Quality Systems will need to enable innovation protect students

RESPONDING TO TECHNOLOGY THROUGH COLLABORATION University Networks publishing courses under a single brand University –Business collaborations for joint- provision of education Living Labs’ to develop OE content, technology and pedagogy

TECHNOLOGY-NETWORKS AS QUALITY NETWORKS  EdX and Coursera only admit ‘world class’ universities  OpenupEd is linked to a Quality Label

INCREASED DEMAND FOR RECOGNITION  Badges  Certificates of attendance  Certificates of completion  ECTS  Diplomas and Degrees easily mapped to Qualifications Framework Hard/Impossible to map to Qualifications Framework

CHALLENGES FOR QA Students Expect HE to provide portable and recognisable qualifications Equivalent Quality across all qualification types Quality of the Qualification itself (recognition & portability as elements of quality)

OPEN DATA & QUALITY TECHNOLOGY GIVES RISE TO NEW EXPECTATIONS FROM THE QUALITY ECOSYSTEM Assure Minimal Quality Standards Offer Various Ranking Methodologies Allow for User Review and Rating Give Access to Data

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION ANTHONY F. CAMILLERI Download this presentation at: