Palle Qvist

Real-Time Quality Control Methods in PBL-based Engineering Education

Traditionally post-semester evaluations are most often used to measure and report higher education quality. The demands for Quality Assurance, quality control and quality development due to the Bologna Declaration and subsequent institutional and programme accreditation and audit demands will expand the use of evaluations. However, traditional post-semester standardised, summative evaluations are not an effective way to monitor quality as the students’ progress in their studies through the semester. Instead, there is a need for a system that enables the institution to measure quality and performance of the instruction and learning by the students as they occur, and to respond accordingly. The School of Basic Studies at Aalborg University, Denmark, operates such a system. The chapter describes the setup of a real-time evaluation system that allows students to have a democratic influence on their education.