Education for a Digital World Advice, Guidelines and Effective Practice from Around Globe, 2008a

9 – Quality Assurance by Design
of understanding of its particularities relative to the real
classroom. E-learning, she claims, continues to foster
the long-standing conflict in values between business
and public services resulting from the absence of quality
assurance (QA) policies.
Nowadays, quality control creates challenges to contemporary
research, owing to its intangible dimensions.
There are discrepancies between the traditional quality
measures associated with accreditation or stateadministered
quality assurance frameworks and the new,
emerging educational paradigm.
Quality in e-learning
THE PROBLEM OF QUALITY
Certain e-learning and pedagogical innovations have not
succeeded in meeting a number of promises (Salmon,
2005), and have created confusion between the mere
supply of information and actual knowledge-building
and training (Barbera, 2004). Projects aiming at supporting
e-learning environments such as UK eUniversity,
NYU Online, Scottish Knowledge, Universitas 21,
Global University Alliance (Garret, 2004), as well as a
number of European corporate learning projects (e.g.,
StarScience, Dunes, Adapt-IT, Teachers-in-Europe,
POLE STAR) have failed to realize many of their goals.
However, the collapse of such initiatives does not indicate
the failure of the e-learning concept per se, but
rather the lack of quality. For example, lack of planning and
marketing were the major reasons for the UKeU failure
(Garrett, 2004.) The questions that arise include: What
constitutes quality in e-learning? Why is it important?
Are there ways we can ensure e-learning quality?
In general, quality refers to fitness of purpose. In e-
learning, quality refers to learning (Stephenson, 2005),
something excellent in performance (EFQUEL, 2005).
In particular, quality in e-learning means providing the
right content at the right time, enabling learners to acquire
knowledge and skills and apply their learning to
improve their performance, whether as an individual or
within an organizational framework (ASTD & NGA,
2001). Stephenson (2005) proposed that quality depends
on its interdisciplinary nature, and the identification of
quality factors for a given environment depends on the
chosen perspective. As there are two essential levels—the
pedagogical and the operational—the target for return of
investment must therefore be viewed as long term.
National bodies and international organizations have
now developed principles, guidelines, and benchmarks
to describe quality based on the international developments
in the field (QAA, 1998; CHEA, 2001; USNEI,
2001; ISO-9000, the Benjamin Franklin Institute, 2001;
EFQUEL, 2006). Furthermore, importance is also attached
to national standards resulting from the globalization
and universal access of learners as customers and
taxpayers. For example, in Europe, there were efforts for
regionally harmonized systems (see Bologna Declaration,
European Ministers of Education, 1999) and Quality
Assurance (QA) and accreditation systems
developments. Brajnik (2001) proposed that a quality
model seeks ‘quality’ by:
• understanding, controlling, and improving a product
or a process;
• identifying problems or performance bottlenecks,
base-lines, and timescales, and,
• comparing these for progress assessment, as well as
for distinguishing certain attributes from others.
This method for developing and documenting a quality
model suggests the production of a complete and consistent
set of quality requirements (Firesmith, 2003).
Attempts to provide such quality frameworks were conducted
by European organizations but they have yet to
be fully tested.
The European Foundation for Quality in E-learning
(EFQUEL) was established in June 2005 in order to provide
a coherent framework of quality factors for all European
organizations. Its mission is “to enhance the Quality of
eLearning in Europe by providing services and support
for all stakeholders” (Nascimbeni, 2005, EFQUEL). This
means that the quality factors are explicitly connected to
the provision of services and support for all stakeholders
from different fields. EFQUEL has attempted to map a
quality model by incorporating stakeholders’ perspective
for policy makers, researchers, e-learning quality related
organizations, decision-makers, e-learning users, and
learners. EFQUEL conducted a European survey between
15 August 2004 and 15 November 2004 (Panorama
Report, Ehlers, Hildebrandt, Görtz & Pawlowski,
2005). Of the 5,023 responses, 28 percent completed it,
and only seven percent finished the two basic sections
on quality of e-learning. (The low response rate may
have been due to inherent difficulties of understanding
and defining what e-learning quality is. It is perhaps easier
to described what quality is than to define it (Stephenson,
2005).) According to the results, quality relates to obtaining
the best learning achievements (50 percent) and
“something that is excellent in performance” (19 percent).
In detail, the Panorama Report revealed the following:
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