Group items tagged

More in the debate on quality of learning and elearning in unis. (Actually not much of a debate - most are in agreement that it's crap!)

Grainne Conole proposes 12 dimesions for better classification of MOOCs. the degree of openness, the scale of participation (massification), the amount of use of multimedia, the amount of communication, the extent to which collaboration is included, the type of learner pathway (from learner centred to teacher-centred and highly structured), the level of quality assurance, the extent to which reflection is encouraged, the level of assessment, how informal or formal it is, autonomy, and diversity. She then evaluates five example MOOCs against these dimensions.

"I was surprised to find while doing some research for a client that there is no single source where one can go to compare different quality standards for e-learning. So I'm starting a list here..."

"In the context of a growing emphasis on eLearning, most commonly facilitated by enterprise-scale Learning Management System and a range of institutionally managed and supported communication and collaboration software tools, and in an environment of increasing emphasis on intellectual property rights management and quality assurance, how do universities (and other educational institutions) respond to the use of free, open-access tools in common use by their students? What are the potential educational uses of such tools? What are the current practices of use of these tools within educational institutions? What are the issues, risks and hidden costs? What are the advantages and benefits?"

This review of collaborative benchmarking in higher education is aimed at people who have a responsibility for evaluating institutional policies, practices and performance. It is intended to provide an overview of benchmarking as a tool for self-evaluation and self-improvement. The overview is published with permission of the journal Quality Assurance in Education 2001.