 Accreditation and Assuring Quality in Distance Learning
Describes the scope and impact of distance learning on higher education,
identifies the challenges that distance learning poses for accreditation, and describes
the response of the accrediting community to assure
quality in distance learning; published in 2002 by the Council for
Higher Education
Accreditation (CHEA).
Benchmarking Quality in Online Degree Programs: Status and Prospects
A journal article that reviews existing guidelines for assessing the quality of online degree programs and proposes a quality framework of criteria and benchmarks for institutional, program, and course levels.
Distance Education: Guidelines for Good Practice
A report from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), based on a survey of members, describes 14 standards for content support, technical support and
counseling for students, protection of intellectual property rights and proper training for faculty; published in 2000.
Guidelines for Creating Web-based Student Services for Online Learning Provides background and resources from a three-year project to develop learner support guidelines; produced by the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET).
Guiding Principles for Faculty in Distance Learning
Developed by the Indiana Higher Education Telecommunication System (IHETS) as a set of good practices and benchmarks for faculty
as they pursue activities in distance learning.
Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever
Describes how the seven principles of good practice created by Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson can be applied to technology-based education.
Maintaining the Delicate Balance: Distance Learning, Higher
Education Accreditation, and the
Politics of Self-Regulation
The American Council on Education (ACE) discusses the challenges of attending to quality in an increasingly internationalized higher education marketplace
NACOL National Standards of Quality for Online Courses
Presents a set of quality criteria adopted from the SREB for online course content, instructional design, technology, student assessment, and course management. Also see NACOL's National Standards for Quality Online Teaching; North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL), 2007-2008.
Principles of Effectiveness for Serving Adult Learners
Describes policies and practices institutions of higher education can adopt to make educational opportunities more accessible to adult learners; published in 2000 by the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL).
Program in Course Redesign (PCR)
Several PCR reports and resources describe the efforts of 30 institutions to demonstrate how colleges and universities can redesign their instructional approaches using technology to achieve cost savings and quality enhancements; from the National Center for Academic Transformation.
Quality Assurance for Whom? Providers and Consumers in Today's Distributed Learning Environment
A report focusing on
issues of quality assurance
from the perspective of
institutions and agencies and from the viewpoint of
consumers,
primarily students but also employers
and graduate and professional schools; published in 2001 by the Pew Learning and Technology Program.
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Resources on principles of good practice and quality standards for distance education and e-learning. |
Quality on the Line: Benchmarks for Success in Internet-Based Distance Education
A report released in March 2000 by the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) and commissioned by Blackboard Inc. and the National Education Association. Six institutions participated in a delphi study to generate a final list of 24 quality benchmarks.
Quality Matters: Inter-Institutional Quality Assurance in Online Learning
Presents a rubric and review materials to evaluate the quality of online courses in relation to 40 elements distributed across eight standards.
Quality Standards in eLearning: A Matrix of Analysis
A journal article that summarizes current published quality standards in the US, organizes them into a nine-cell matrix, and discusses emerging issues. Also see
Quality Improvement, Quality Assurance, and Benchmarking: Comparing Two Frameworks for Managing Quality Processes in Open and Distance Learning.
Regional Accrediting Agency Documents on Electronically Offered Degree and Certificate Programs
These principles produced by the Regional Accrediting Commissions and the Western
Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET) involved a three-year project to define issues of quality and access in designing and evaluating distance education programs.
Seven Principles of Good Practice
Describes the process, task force, and background documents of the Ohio Learning Network to establish principles of good practice for quality in distance learning.
Sloan Consortium Report to the Nation: Five Pillars of Quality Online Education
A synthesis of research-based insights
and comments gathered from papers presented at a 2002 invitational workshop sponsored by the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Sloan Consortium
(Sloan-C). Also see Sloan-C Quality Framework for principles of practice for each pillar.
Toward an Effective Quality Assurance Model of Web-Based Learning: The Perspective of Academic Staff
A journal article examining 24 quality assurance benchmarks and the survey results on commonly agreed elements that contribute and ensure quality in the Web-based learning environment.
Towards a Culture of Quality: Perspectives on Distance Education
Presents 12 case studies from around the world detailing quality practices, challenges, and achievements; and draws conclusions about quality assurance in open and distance learning; Commonwealth of Learning (COL); 2006.
What Constitutes Quality in Web-Based Training?
Provides a checklist of 22 value statements that can be used to measure quality as well as a scorecard of weighted indices for evaluating the quality of online training products.
3/2008
C.H. Olgren
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