Ulf-Daniel Ehlers

Understanding quality culture

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a holistic understanding of quality in higher education which reveals the current debates about accreditation or quality process standards as insufficient, and to propose an enhanced model for quality culture in educational organisations.Design/methodology/approach – The conceptual framework is based on relevant research in the field of quality development for education, and integrates it with a series of previously published works related to quality methodologies, quality literacy and quality as a multidimensional concept. Quality is approached from an educational science perspective, and is understood as a relationship among all the participants and resources of an educational scenario.Findings – The paper establishes the foundation for a comprehensive understanding and analysis of quality culture in organisations, focussing on higher education. While this understanding of quality as part of the organisational culture seems to gain more importance there ...

Web 2.0--E-Learning 2.0--Quality 2.0? Quality for New Learning Cultures

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the changes taking place when learning moves from a transmissive learning model to a collaborative and reflective learning model and proposes consequences for quality development.Design/methodology/approach – The paper summarises relevant research in the field of e‐learning to outline the differences between e‐learning 1.0 and e‐learning 2.0 and amalgamates it with a series of previously published works. The characteristics of quality development are analyses in a next step and suitable methodologies for developing quality for e‐learning 2.0 environments are selected, proposed and explained.Findings – Even though the question of quality is controversially discussed already when e‐learning 1.0 appeared on the market, e‐learning 2.0 creates even more insecurity. This paper aims at answering the following questions: what constitutes the new, innovative element, which is described by Web 2.0 and e‐learning 2.0? Does this development have consequences for how i...

State of the Art Review of Quality Issues related to Open Educational Resources (OER)

The need for quality assurance mechanisms to support the development and sustainable use of Open Educational Resources (OER) are being raised in the literature and in European and national policy documents as a major challenge and opportunity. There is however, only little experience and consensus in research and practice on how to define and approach quality for OER, in contrast with quality assurance related to eLearning for instance. The notion of openness is posing additional challenges. The aim of this report is to provide an overview of Quality approaches and concepts for OER and to some extent, Open Education, with the aim to identify policy options for action at EU and Member State level to further promote the development and use of OER in Europe. The focus for the overview is on Higher Education in the context of Open Education as announced in the Commission Communication on “Rethinking education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes” (EC, 2013). This report introduces quality concepts and approaches related to OER. It provides an overview of definitions of quality for OER and suggests a conceptual mapping as well as an overview of major issues related to quality for OER. Where appropriate, it gives examples of relevant existing practices and initiatives to illustrate the conceptual mapping. It also provides insights on the role of different actors and institutions involved in quality and OER. Finally, the report provides recommendations for policymakers at European and Member States level on quality assurance and OER with the aim to support the further development and use of OER in Europe.

Introduction: Changing Cultures in Higher Education

Twelve years have passed since Peter Drucker made his threatening prediction for the future of universities. But, while we have left the twentieth century behind us, the university as an institution has been quite stable in its capacity to adapt and serve society – and continues to do so today. One proof for the evolution of higher education institutions can be found in the great diversity of institutional forms higher education displays, which range from small colleges and universities of applied science to complex university systems and from private colleges to global online universities. This way, universities are responding to the challenges and opportunities inherent in a modern world as they are evolving to serve new purposes in rapid changing times. However, scholars and academic practitioners believe that revolution, but not evolution, is the paradigm, which coherently characterizes the required changes in the higher education landscape (see e.g. Chaps 4 and 5).

E-learning Readiness Analysis (ERA): an e-health case study of e-learning readiness

Electronic learning (e-learning) is seen as a good solution for organisations that deal with fast-changing knowledge and for reducing the cost of training. E-learning is a good opportunity for companies but it needs to be well prepared because it often takes high investment costs. That is why it is important for a company to know if it is e-ready. E-readiness is already well covered in the literature and several models are suggested. We used these models to develop an e-learning readiness measurement instrument and questionnaire. We used our instrument to check whether the Flemish hospitals were e-ready for e-learning.

Learning from experience - towards a formal model for contextualization of experiences for quality development

Quality development in e-learning becomes more and more important. A lot of approaches have been developed to improve educational processes in this field. The implementation of these approaches however often lacks success, the decision for an appropriate approach is difficult. The following article suggests a formal approach to collect experiences and recommendations to help users of quality approaches enhance their success. The contextualization of experiences will help to transfer them from one specific situation to a different context. The suggested approach is a development of the European Quality Observatory, an observatory platform for quality approaches in European e-learning.

Innovation and Quality for New Learning Cultures

This chapter explores the potential of Web 2.0 technologies to leverage e-Learning to a new generation and assesses the consequences for quality assurance, management, and development in higher education. The chapter describes key characteristics of the e-Learning 2.0 phenomenon and how the related emerging learning scenarios can be used for the principles of quality development in learning communities. It explores a range of methods that can be deployed for quality development in community-oriented learning. Finally, it discusses if a new learning culture, which is based on the philosophy of Web 2.0 and exploits the potentials of social software for learning, automatically leads to a new quality culture.

Myths and realities in learner oriented e-learning-quality

The article describes the concept of learner oriented quality development for elearning in various educational sectors. Learner orientation is viewed as a necessity rather than an option for quality development in e-learning. Learners’ quality concepts are introduced as the reference point for negotiation processes between the stakeholders in a quality development process. Participative environments are viewed as the future challenge – rather than following concepts which view quality development as an isolated activity of single actors in educational organisations. As a solution for this challenge a new concept of participative quality development which involvers all stakeholders is suggested. Participation is here combined with negotiation to find common objectives for quality development. Four questions are answered in particular: What is learner orientation? Why is it important? What do learners think about quality? How can learner orientation in quality development be achieved in a participative way?

Erfolgsfaktoren für E-Learning: Die Sicht der Lernenden und mediendidaktische Konsequenzen

Lernerorientierung ist in der (beruflichen) Weiterbildung mittlerweile ein weitgehend akzeptiertes Paradigma. Bildungsanbieter stehen vor der Aufgabe, zunehmend „Kunden“-individuellere Bildungsangebote anzubieten, die den Qualitatsanspruchen individueller Nutzergruppen genugen. Um das bewerkstelligen zu konnen, ist es notwendig zu ermitteln, von welchen Dimensionen und Faktoren Qualitat aus Lernersicht abhangt. Erstmals wurden nun Qualitatsanforderungen fur E-Learning aus Lernersicht empirisch ermittelt. Es zeigt sich, dass sie sich klar differenzieren lassen. Die dargestellten zielgruppenspezifischen Qualitatsprofile machen deutlich, dass Qualitatsanforderungen nicht allgemeingultig, sondern je nach Zielgruppe unterschiedlich sind. Zusatzlich werden mediendidaktische Uberlegungen angestellt, wie eine zukunftige lernerorientierte Qualitatsentwicklung auch didaktisch fruchtbar gemacht werden konnte.

Quality evaluation for e-learning in Europe

The development and provision of e-learning is a rapidly expanding area of education and training. Whether this is through an intranet, the internet, multimedia or computer based training, e-learning is seen as a key corner stone for building the future knowledge society. However, what is known about these innovative approaches to training has been limited by the shortage of scientifically credible evaluation. Is e-learning effective? In what contexts? For what groups of learners? How do different learners respond? Are there marked differences between different ICT platforms? Does the socio-cultural environment make a difference? What problems has it created for the teachers? E-learning is also one of the areas that attracts the most research and development funding. If this investment is to be maximised, it is imperative to evaluate e-learning processes and produce tools which are flexible in use but consistent in results.