Un modelo para la evaluacion de la calidad e-learning

The Swedish National Agency of Higher Education conducted a study, 2007-2008, in order to develop knowledge about what constitutes quality in e-learning, and how such quality may be assessed within the framework of a national quality assurance system.

This paper presents a model for quality assessment of e-learning. The model has been developed using analyses of policy documents, networks and development projects initiated within the framework of European cooperation and analyses of how different national assessment organizations and agencies charged with promoting the national development of  e-learning deal with the question of quality assessment of e-learning and distance learning. These descriptions and analyses cover nine countries. The analyses indicate that while e-learning is on the agenda in many European contexts and in individual countries, it is only recently – and much more sporadically – that the subject has been broached of how e-learning quality should be assessed. In many organizations, quality in e-learning appears to be a non-issue. A survey of current research in the area is also included in this study, and serves as the central basis for the proposed assessment model.

The National Agency’s model for assessing quality in e-learning – Elearning quality (ELQ) – comprises ten quality aspects which, in our view, are central to such assessments: 1) Material/ content, 2) Structure/virtual environment, 3) Communication, cooperation and interactivity, 4) Student assessment, 5) Flexibility and adaptability, 6) Support (student and staff), 7) Staff qualifications and experience, 8) Vision and institutional leadership, 9) Resource allocation, 10) The holistic and process aspect.

Further, it is our view that elearning quality must be assessed from a systems perspective, i.e. that the quality of the education is determined by all of the above aspects taken together, and by their interrelationships. Another central conclusion is that if a national agency or other organization is to assess e-learning, it is not enough simply to draw up quality aspects. The assessing body also needs to develop and adapt its own working methods and guarantee its internal competence: Existing methods of quality assessment need to be adapted; Quality aspects for elearning need to be integrated into existing quality assurance systems; Internal competence and the provision of information in the e-learning area need to be guaranteed; Internal working methods need to be adapted to the special conditions which apply for the assessment of borderless education.