A presentation from International Council for Open and Distance Education - ICDE at the VI Cread Andes Convention and VI Virtual Educa Ecuador Conference in Ecuador, 29 May - 1 June 2018
Python Notes for mca i year students osmania university.docx
Quality in online, open and flexible education - a global perspective
1. Quality in online, open and
flexible education
- a global perspective
Torunn Gjelsvik, Head of Development
International Council for Open and Distance Education - ICDE
2. 170 + Institutional members
24 Associate institutional
Individuals and Doctoral
Students from all world regions
Support
From
Norway
30 years
UNESCO
Partner
>50 years
Founded 1938
To be the global facilitator for inclusive,
flexible, quality learning and teaching in the
digital age.
4. Informal/non-formal
Rapid and diverse expansion of higher
education enrolment and the need for new
competencies and skills
100 mill
200 mill
2000 2015 2030
412 mill
Only possible facilitated by online, open and flexible learning
5. Target 3, point 43.:
A well-established, properly-
regulated tertiary education system
supported by technology, Open
Educational Resources (OERs) and
distance education modalities can
increase access, equity, quality and
relevance, and narrow the gap
between what is taught at tertiary
education institutions and what
economies and societies demand.
The provision of tertiary education
should be progressively free, in line
with existing international
agreements.
6. The UNESCO Quality Conferences:
2017 - Regional UNESCO conferences on Quality Assurance in Higher Education in:
• Bahrain (Arab region), March
• Cameroun (Francophone Africa), May
• Shenzen (Asia-Pasific Region), June
2018 – Regional UNESCO conferences on Quality Assurance in Higher Education in:
• Geneva (Western Europe), February
• Moscow (Eastern Europe and Central Asia), April
• Johannesburg (Anglophone Africa), Tbc
2019 – International UNESCO Conference on Quality Assurance in Higher Education
UNESCO Headquarters, Paris (date tbc). Scope: How QA can contribute to achieving the SDGs and
Education 2030?
The UNESCO Agenda for for Higher Education and Quality (1):
7. The UNESCO Global Convention on the Recognition of Higher Education
Qualifications.
• It aims to: “facilitate academic mobility, improve quality and enhance international
cooperation in higher education”.
• Build international consistency in recognition processes
• An enabler for quality enhancement of higher education
• Online, open and flexible education is included as “non-traditional learning modes”
• To be adopted by the United Nations’ member states in 2019
The UNESCO Agenda for for Higher Education and Quality (2):
8. The UNESCO 3rd World Conference on Higher Education 2020
• Focus: “Universities as communities for lifelong learning”
• New types of learning both on campus and online through technology enhanced and blended
study provisions to be included
• Digital Higher Education is seen by UNESCO as a key opportunity to improve quality and
inclusion
The UNESCO Agenda for for Higher Education and Quality (3):
9. Agreed policy between ICDE and UNESCO
Paris Message, 2015)
• Recognise the important contribution from online, open and flexible
education to meet the challenge of scale and quality
• Create effective policies and enable regulations for online, open and
flexible systems at all levels based on equity principles
• Recognise that funding is critical, and needs to include investment in
high-capacity network infrastructure, faculty development and
equitable and affordable access to quality education
10. The ICDE Quality Agenda
• Quality is our Strategic Objective number 1: “To promote quality digital open and
flexible education”
• The establishment of the ICDE Quality Network
• The global study of delivery models for online, open, flexible and
technology enhanced higher education – “OOFAT”
• Our open scholarly journal Open Praxis
• The ICDE Global Doctoral Consortium
• The ICDE Quality Review Service
• ICDE COIL and Internationalization Services
13. Quality in online education:
the holistic perspective
• Quality in online, open and flexible education should not be regarded
as separated from quality assurance of all other educational provision
• Quality standards, guidelines, recommendations and recognition
should be developed through an integrated perspective
• The understanding and measures for quality needs to be developed
through a culture of quality enhancement that must be integrated
into the HE system
• Requires a strong and committed leadership from institutional,
national and global educational leaders
14. Important quality factors in
(online, open and flexible) education
• Quality enhancement rather than assurance – since educational
environments are developing fast and have become “moving targets”
• Open Educational Resources (OER) have the potential to increase quality
and access to education, and should be subject to the same quality
requirements as other educational resources
• Student engagement and satisfaction
• Faculty engagement and satisfaction
• Learning Analytics for personalized and adaptive learning
• Competency based education recognized by employers
• Assessment of learning outcomes
• Alternative assessment and credentials
15. Input from the ICDE Quality Network
= a global perspective on QA of online, open and flexible education
17. Some quality challenges for
online education across the globe
• QA systems do not fit distance and online education
• Perception of online education as inferior to conventional learning
• Lack of strategic and national norms
• Lack of institutional commitment to quality enhancement
• Lack of staff competencies in blended and online learning
• Faculty resistance to transparency and quality development
• Lack of integrated perspective on quality across modalities
• Poor infrastructure – unstable internet connectivity and power supply
constraints
22. The teacher is placed in the background
And the
pupils at
the front
(this girl
explains her
math
homework to
the rest of the
class on the
big screen)
24. Significant changes through increased
digital learning and Learning Analytics
• Learning happens more and more online, also in traditional F2F
learning environments
• Virtual learning produces data that can feed learning analysis =
increased transparency
• Students expect more personalized learning and feedback
• Teachers can monitor students more closely and adapt their teaching
• Institutions, Accreditation Bodies and QA agencies need to monitor
and report statistics of success rates, retention etc.
25. Sources and background documents
• Policy Reviews and Quality Assurance in Higher Education, UNESCO:
• Global Convention on the Recognition on Higher Education, draft 2017 UNESCO
• Guidelines for Quality Provision in Cross-Border Higher Education,
OECD/UNESCO, 2005
• Paris Message: https://www.icde.org/paris-message
• Quality Management in higher education: Development and drivers, UNESCO,
2017
• At a Crossroads. Higher education in Latin America and the Carribbean, World
Bank Group, 2017
• Dragan Gacevic et. al: How do we start? State and directions of Learning Analytics
Adoption, ICDE Insight Paper, 2016
• Anne Boyer and Geoffray Bonnin: Higher Education and the Revolution of
Learning Analytics, ICDE Insight Paper, 2016
26. Resources for quality in online, open
and flexible education
• Quality Models in online and open education around the globe, ICDE
Report; May 2015
• Student success in open, distance and e-learning, ICDE Report, April
2015
• A guide to quality in teaching and learning, Flexible Education
Norway, 2018)
• ICDE Insight Papers on selected topics
• Online course certification system – EFMD Global Network
• What before was in the margins, open and distance learning, is now going mainstream in large parts of the world, materialised as online, blended, open, flexible, technology enhanced and e-Learning. Convergence is here, followed by increasing competition (and collaboration) and diversity in higher education. While this is the main trend, the situation in some regions will provide a different picture, e.g. in parts of the south.
