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Quality, Education Quality, eLearning Quality

Nan YangDoctoral School in Psychological Sciences and Education

Nan.yang@unitn.it

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Outline

• What’s the concept of Quality, Education Quality and eLearning Quality

• How to measure?• Discussion

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Quality

• Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary– peculiar and essential character– degree of excellence– a distinguishing attribute

• Wikipedia– perceptual, conditional and somewhat subjective attribute

(quality in business)– an attribute or a property (quality in philosophy)

• Academic Paper– A relative and value-laden concept and may be viewed

differently by various stakeholders

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Quality

• How to measure?– ISO 9001 (International Organization for Standards)• Quality management system• An international consensus on good quality

management practices– Managing its process efficient– Fully in control of its activities

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Education Quality

• UNICEF’s point (United Nations Children’s Fund)– Quality Education includes: quality learners, quality

environments, quality content, quality processes, quality outcomes.

• European Commission’s point(European Economy, Quality and efficiency in education, special report No.3/2004)– contributing to the productivity of future members of

the labor force, stimulating technical progress and providing benefits in terms of greater citizenship, health and culture, and the democratic value of access to education

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Education Quality

• How to measure?– Standardized academic achievement tests• It can test the performance in literacy, math and

science• it can’t fully accurately measure others (e.g. the extent to which education instills good

citizenship)

– Different perspectives for measurement• Institutions, instructors, students, assessors,

government, professionals

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Education Quality• Models– European Commission’s Model

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Education Quality

– Key Quality Indicators(Department of Education, State of Oregon, USA)

• Leadership that facilitates student learning • Parental/Community involvement • Organizational adaptability• A safe and orderly environment • A district with aligned curriculum and maximumallocation of resources to the classroom • Effective teachers • Student connectedness to school

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eLearning Quality

• Specific aspect in educational quality– Quality of eLearning VS eQuality of Learning

• Different meanings of eLearning Quality– individual users, institutions, policy makers,

society• How to measure eLearning quality– Judged by same standards as f2f education?

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eLearning Quality• Models– Subjective Quality Requirements(Ehlers,2004)-Learners level• Tutor support• Collaboration• Technology• Costs-expectations-benefits• Information transparency of provider and courses• Course structure• Didactics

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eLearning Quality

– e-Learning Maturity Model (Marshall, 2007)-Institutional Level• Five process categories

– Learning (pedagogical)– Development (creation and maintenance of resources)– Support (management of eLearning)– Evaluation (quality control)– Organization (institutional planning and management)

• Dimensions of capability– Delivery (creation and delivery of process)– Planning (assess the use of predefined plans)– Definition (the use of standards, guidelines, templates)– Management (manage the process implementation)– Optimization (continuous improvement)

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eLearning Quality

– E-xcellence project’s model (33 elements)-Self-Assessment Guide in institutional level

(European Association of Distance Teaching Universities)• Strategic management• Curriculum design• Course design• Course delivery• Staff support• Student support

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eLearning Quality

– Korea’s quality criteria (95 elements)-Policy Maker(Ministry of Education, Science and Technology)• Educational planning• Instruction• Human resources• Physical resources• Management and administration• Educational results

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eLearning Quality

– ISO: a framework for quality management in use of ICT in learning, education and training

-society level• Establishment of requirement (defining objectives)

• General conditions (external context, personnel resources, target group)

• Design (learning content, didactics, activities)

• Production (content’s development)

• Introduction(testing, adapting and release of learning resource)

• Implementation (administration, activities and review)

• Evaluation/optimization

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Discussion• Do we need a unified concept for “quality” in

the educational context and why?– To know our research stance

• What’s the radical/intrinsic purpose for us to study the quality of eLearning?– To know our research focus

• What kind of the research outcome we want to produce? – To guide our research design and implementation

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Thank you