Creating a standard of excellence in e-learning ELUE meeting, ROME 31st of May 2006 George Ubachs

Quality Assurance in HE ENQA-report of February Agreed upon by European ministers of Education In Bergen May 2005: Standards and guidelines for QA in the European HE area. Based on experience from national quality agencies

E-learning is becoming increasingly important in both mainstream and continuing HE as learning platforms and pedagogical methods improve. Improving e-learning will ultimately support the Bologna objectives and EADTU’s “e-Bologna” by: creating a European Area of Higher Education ensuring co-operation between universities and raise competitiveness of European universities. CONTEXT OF OPERATION

MISSING European standards/benchmarks specifically for e-learning in HE For example: criteria based on ease of access new forms of interaction between staff and students and students between them flexibility, personalisation and other pedagogical aspects that are more relevant to e-learning than criteria that are traditionally used for quality assurance and accreditation. These express the added value e-learning brings into higher education

E-xcellence: creating a standard of excellence in e-learning Main Contributors: EADTU OULU-University (Finland) OUNL (Netherlands) OUUK (United Kingdom) with support from: CNED (France) UNED (Spain) UOC (Spain) EITSA (Estonia) NETTUNO (Italy) APERTUS (Hungary) NVAO (Netherlands/Belgium) European University Association (EUA)

General objective The general objective for QA in e-learning is to optimise the learning process and offer assurance to stakeholders that e-learning provision is of high quality. The QA in e-learning system has to be complementary to other national quality assurance systems related to content, staff and infrastructure.

General objective To establish a framework of quality criteria for the development, operation and evaluation of e- learning programmes To establish an appropriate set of performance indicators, parameters and guidelines by which the quality of e-learning programmes may be measured in a validation or accreditation context Threshold and excellence levels to be defined

APPROACH Analysis of existing quality processes of partners and/or requirements of national quality organisations in the light of the criteria developed Making inventory of missing criteria (by 12 e-learning experts) Stakeholders consultation procedure Synthesis of the best aspects of these Translation of these parameters into a quality assessment tool and guide testing in test-beds and subsequent use across participants

Results so far Set of (54) criteria agreed upon after feedback from stakeholders These cover institutional, pedagogical, technical, ethical and management aspects of e-learning organised into the four main categories of :  Management (institutional and programme levels)  Products (course design and delivery)  Services (student and staff support)  Monitoring and Improvement (evaluation and enhancement)

Two examples of criteria (Management) The institution has an e-learning strategy that is part of the general strategic planning of the institution and the development of its educational programmes (Products) The curriculum offers opportunities for (on- line) contacts between fellow students and with teachers, researchers, professionals, etc. to help develop a critical attitude to study

Threshold and excellence level Threshold level to set out minimum requirements for use essentially by institution’s own self-evaluation and approval mechanisms. Will be applicable to a variety of institutional and programme contexts, including blended learning, to assess fitness for purpose Excellence level to set out a more extensive set of indicators for rating high quality. Also widely applicable but of more value to dedicated e- learning

Assessing the “e” in e-learning

Thank you for your attention Contact: