authors: göran karlsson, lutz michel eden 2005 annual conference 20 june, 2005 the market request...

Authors: Göran Karlsson, Lutz Michel20 June, 2005

EDEN 2005 Annual Conference

The Market Request for Quality and/or Accreditation in Lifelong e-Learning

KTH =

Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (Royal Institute of Technology), Stockholm

MMB =

MMB Institut für Medien- und Kompetenzforschung (MMB Institute for Media and Competence Research), Essen




The 1998 Recommendation on QA in HE-mandate: Commission to support and report-2004 report

Bologna declaration/process (June 1999), Prague (2002), Berlin (2003), Bergen (2005), London (2007)

Lisbon Strategy (March 2000): “Education&Training 2010 – EHEA 2010“ (to make the European Union “the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world” by 2010)




The 2005 the Bergen communiqué:

Degree system is implemented in a large scale (<2010).

Quality assurance: European Network for Quality Assurance (ENQA).

Recognition of degrees: 36 of 45 countries, large market, life long learning embeded in higher education, and under development. Accreditation.




The 2005 the Bergen communiqué:

Research and higher education; synergies.

Social dimension. Equal accessibility Distance learning.

Mobility Distance learning.

Open, attractive to other parts of the world, academic, sustainable Distance learning, business.

Continental cooperation about regional developments.




“ ‘Accreditation’ is review of the quality of higher education institutions and programs.

…it is a major way that students, families, government officials, and the press know that an institution or program provides a quality education.” (www.chea.org)




So what do education organizations in Europe think about accreditation?

Survey!



DLAE survey: “e-Learning accreditation in Europe“

Highlights of an explorative inquiry among e-Learning

providers in Europe

20th June, 2005 Authors: Göran Karlsson, Lutz Michel


Methodological background

31 providers of e-Learning courses took part in our survey 21 universities 10 private providers of vocational training

Function of interviewees: e.g. director of studies, CEO, research associate

Kind of courses offered by the interviewees: e.g. European Net Trainer, Business Information Technologies, Tele Trainer, Master of Business Administration

NoteThis survey is exploratory and does not claim to give representative results



Accreditation in e-Learning

Is your course accredited?

Reasons for abstinence

no legal requirement as yet

no strong regulation to accredit

courses without BA /MA- certificate

quality is implicit in the course

no national standard up to now

no advantages for the market

Yes (16)

No (14)



Criteria of accreditation judgement

2,3

2,8

2,8

3,6

1 2 3 4

Value for money

Reputation

Market-relevance

Quality

very unimportant very important

Data: Arithmetic mean(n=31)

Question 3: How do you judge procedures of accreditation in general? Please rate the following criteria on a scale from 1 up to 4 (1 = very unimportant; 4 = very important).



The course(n=26)

The institution(n=17)

General object of accreditation

... the course (nominated 26 times)

easier to accredit

the accreditation procedure doesn’t take so much time

it is a quality criteria for the client / the customer

... the institution (nominated 17 times):

it is a quality criteria for the client / the customer

if an institution has proved a high level of quality about some years, the accreditation body should take this into consideration

Accreditation should testify...



Accreditation: Preferences

4

11

11

17

10

20

7

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Commercial

State-run

Non-profit

European

National

Voluntary

Obligatory

Data: Number of replies

Question 8: Which kind of accreditation would you prefer?Question 9: Which accreditation body do you prefer?

Preferred accreditation body

Preferred kind of accreditation



Accreditation: Problems & Requirements

External evaluators have external criteria which do not always fit

with the realities of the institution

Students and alumni should be taken into account much stronger

Unique definition of „quality“

E-Learning is quite new to most of the evaluators, this leads to

inconsistent criteria

Extreme standardisation may lead to arbitrariness (anything can

be accredited)

Not always enough information about the reputation of the

accreditation body (important for the acceptance in the market)

The evaluator‘s „e-pedagogical“ competencies should be as good

as the provider‘s



„Optimal accreditation“: Requirements

It should be:

Fast, to make sure that the provider has no drawbacks in business

Standardized, to make it fast

Transparent, to make it comparable to others

Affordable


EDEN 2005 Annual ConferenceThank you very much for your attention!

For more information: http://dlae.enpc.fr

authors: göran karlsson, lutz michel eden 2005 annual conference 20 june, 2005 the market request...

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