Eberhard Heuel

Quality Standards for e-Learning in Vocational Education and Training: The Certified European E-Tutor

E-learning is shaping the education in Europe and points to new and creative ways of teaching in Vocational Educational Training (VET). This development, however, has not reached all parts of Europe according to surveys by CEDEFOP (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training) and the quality of e-learning in VET varies widely, depending on the personal competence of the teachers and trainers. Also, different educational traditions and cultural predispositions need to be taken into account when the acceptance of e-learning should be increased. Therefore, a systematic training of teachers and trainers could be a valuable instrument to ensure the quality of e-learning in a professional and efficient way. This is the main goal of the project “Certified European E-Tutor” (CET) funded by the European Commission. This paper will describe the background of the project and then discuss the state of the art in research on e-learning quality standards and reference initiatives. The main part of the paper is the description of the projects goals of the CET, especially the e-learning standards for e-tutors developed in the project. Impact and outlook will close the paper and give a perspective for future developments.