Title: Unit 1: Quality and QA in Education
Course: Quality Assurance of Blended and Online Learning > Section: Quality and QA in Education

Core concepts of quality and quality assurance, and the particular quality questions raised by blended and online education.

Learning Journey

There are four units in this course, and each explores a specific aspect of principles and practices involved in assessing learners online. Let's now begin with Unit 1. Quality and Quality Assurance in Education (Up next) Methods and Tools of Quality Assurance (Upcoming) Quality in Technology-mediated Education (Upcoming) COL's Quality Assurance Tools (Upcoming) 1 2 3 4

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Unit 1: Quality and Quality Assurance in Education

The value of education lies in its quality. Although expansion in education is a global phenomenon, this trend has continued mainly due to international development efforts such as the Millennium Development Goals, initially, and now the Sustainable Development Goals. Introduction Such expansion has been positive in terms of increasing participation rates in education and increasing literacy rates generally, but the challenge for mass education has been to provide enough resources to roll out high-quality teaching and learning. The Result of Limited Resources
The ultimate consequence of such limited resources has been declining quality in educational provision, especially at higher levels of education. Linked to this challenge is the issue of whether the education provided by educational institutions is relevant for the demands of job markets and rapidly changing societies.

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Quality and Quality Assurance in Education: What will We Learn In This Unit?

In this unit, we examine the concepts of quality and quality assurance as they apply in education. We also look at the different modes of educational delivery and identify factors that directly impinge on quality. We examine strategies and methods that can be used to enhance the quality of education offered through different modes of delivery. In particular, we look at how quality should be enhanced in blended and online learning. Utilising Available Technologies for Blended and Online Learning
Due to the availability of enabling technologies, as well as the challenges posed by natural disasters like COVID-19, education is generally going toward the blended and online routes. Since technology-enhanced methods of delivery are being mainstreamed in education, we need to ensure that robust quality assurance measures are implemented. This helps maintain the credibility of such offerings.

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Learning Objectives: Quality and Quality Assurance in Education

Upon completion of this unit, you are expected to be able to:
- Define the terms quality and quality assurance as applied to education
- Describe the different modes of delivering education used to cope with increased demand and natural disasters like COVID-19
- Identify quality challenges posed by the different modes of provision
- Suggest ways of enhancing education quality, irrespective of the mode of provision

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Pause and Reflect

Before you begin, take some time to reflect on your thoughts: Think of some of the quality challenges faced in the educational provision at any level in your country. As you go through this unit, you may like to discuss with colleagues in your institution how these challenges can be addressed.

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The Concept of Quality

Quality in education is perceived differently by different people. As parents, we probably consider certain factors when we choose which school or college to send our child to.
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What Makes Quality Education? Video Transcript.
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Video Attribution: “What Makes Quality Education?” by Simpleshow Foundation is available under a CC BY licence

Related links

- Open resource on simpleshow-foundation.org
- Open resource on creativecommons.org
- Watch video

Downloads

- what makes a quality education transcript.pdf

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Pause and Reflect

Pause for a while to reflect on your thoughts: Having watched the video, what factors would you consider in your context when choosing a school? Make a list of them and write why each is important for you.

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The Concept of Quality (Continued)

Although there is no consensus on what constitutes quality education, and some people disagree about who should determine that quality, there are common factors many people generally agree on. While many may not be able to give a technical definition of quality, they nevertheless know what they want from educational institutions. At the institutional level, it is always important for internal stakeholders to share a common understanding of what they mean by quality education. The way an institution perceives quality has a profound influence on the quality assurance (QA) policies developed and the quality enhancement strategies adopted.

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The Concept of Quality (Continued)

A Scholarly Opinion
A renowned scholar in quality assurance contends:
Consequently, our methods of evaluating quality spring from more deep-seated beliefs as to what counts as quality. But, and more significantly, these beliefs over what counts as quality themselves derive from more fundamental assumptions as to the ideal nature of higher education. (Barnett, 1994, p. 171)

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Perception of Quality

Quality is perceived differently by different people. The most traditional definition of quality is provided by Harvey and Green (1993, p. 11), who perceive quality as: While these various perceptions of quality are treated separately in the literature, often several notions of the concept manifest themselves in the quality assurance (QA) policies and practices of any given institution. Let's proceed to the next screen to view an example. Exception (excellence) Perfection Fitness for purpose Value for money Transformational

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Perception of Quality (Continued)

In South Africa, “the Higher Education Quality Committee's understanding of quality encompasses fitness for purpose, value for money, and individual and social transformation, within an overarching fitness of purpose framework” (CHE, 2004, p. 5). This all-encompassing national perception of quality obviously influences the approach institutions take to implementing their quality assurance (QA) arrangements.

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Quality as Standards that are Set

In education, there is a sense in which quality can be understood as standards that an institution sets itself to achieve within given time frames. In setting such standards, the institution takes into account the quality expectations of its stakeholders, including parents, potential employers, and other institutions students aspire to access for further education. Download the PDF to know the three quality standards – the quality continuum, the relativist notion of quality, and the objectivist notion of quality. It also explains how an educational institution works towards achieving the goals that are set at the beginning of an academic year.

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The Concept of Quality Assurance

Now that you have a fair understanding about quality, we move on to discuss what quality assurance is. It refers to systems, plans, and processes that are put in place to ensure that desired goals are achieved. The process of quality assurance has various attributes as below: It is a process that involves a collection of policies, procedures and practices that are both internal and external to an institution, which are designed to achieve, maintain and enhance quality.
Unlike quality control, which comes at the end of a process to establish the fitness of purpose of an end product, quality assurance takes place right from the beginning and is meant to ensure that no defects are produced in the system.
It is a proactive process rather than a reactive one, assuring an institution's internal and external stakeholders that explicitly stated goals/aims will be met.
Quality assurance involves deliberately setting goals and putting in place mechanisms that ensure the institution achieves those goals.

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The Concept of Quality Assurance (Continued)

We just learned that quality assurance differs from quality control. Watch the video to know how.
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Quality Assurance Versus Quality Control Video Transcript.
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Video Attribution: “Quality Assurance Versus Quality Control” by Commonwealth of Learning is available under a CC BY-SA licence

Related links

- Open resource on col.org
- Open resource on creativecommons.org
- Watch video

Downloads

- quality assurance vs quality control accessible 16.pdf

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Quality Assurance: A Process of Evaluation

According to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), quality assurance is an all-embracing term that refers to an ongoing, continuous process of evaluating (assessing, monitoring, guaranteeing, maintaining and improving) the quality of education systems, institutions or programmes. As a regulatory mechanism, quality assurance focuses on both accountability and improvement, providing information and judgements (but not rankings) through an agreed upon and consistent process and well-established criteria (Vlasceanu et al., 2007, p. 74).

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Blended and Online Learning and Quality Assurance

Figure 1. A Venn diagram showing overlaps between distance education, online learning and blended learning.

In this section, we discuss the different modes of educational provision, such as distance education, blended learning and online learning. You need to understand key aspects of these delivery modes in terms of teaching and learning so that you are able to maintain quality when using them. These modes of delivery, especially blended and online learning, are also increasingly becoming more prevalent at all levels of educational provision. Unless we know how to quality assure educational processes associated with these delivery modes, the quality of education offered through these delivery modes remains compromised. Let's study each mode one by one.

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Distance Education

The distance education delivery mode has been in existence for many decades, if not centuries.
The Commonwealth of Learning defines distance education as a process of teaching and learning that is characterised by the separation of teacher and learner in time and/or place for most of the educational transaction (COL, 2020a).
The teaching and learning processes are mediated by technology for the delivery of learning content, but with the possibility of face-to-face interaction between the learner and the teacher and amongst learners themselves. An essential element of distance education is that there is always provision for two-way didactic communication. Traditionally, this usually involved correspondence courses wherein the student corresponded with the school via mail.

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Distance Education (Continued)

Due to advancements in information and communication technologies, most distance education systems today are supported by technology. The main advantage of distance education is the flexibility the learner enjoys in terms of when to learn, where to learn and at what pace. This mode of provision has opened up access to education for millions of people who, for one reason or another, cannot participate in formal education institutions. The African Context In the African context, for instance, most of the higher education institutions now have a Distance Education Unit. This is in addition to the many open universities that are becoming popular in numerous African countries. On a global scale, mega-universities are predominantly open universities that use distance learning. Let's proceed to the next screen to learn more about mega-universities.

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Distance Education (Continued)

According to Sir John Daniel, a mega-university is one with an enrolment of more than 100,000 students, (Daniel, 1996, cited in Guri-Rosenblit, 2019). Given their sizes, you can easily imagine the impact these open universities make in education. The importance of ensuring that the quality of distance education offered to the millions of students who go through these institutions cannot be overemphasised. As Horn and Salisbury (2019) observe:
Today's mega-universities, which serve a growing population of non-traditional students, should be leading the charge on quality assurance. They should be eager to prove — with clear and verified accounting — that they are a truly different model, not just the for-profit playbook remade under a non-profit brand.

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Blended Learning

Let's now study what blended learning means. Bates (2015) identifies various ways in which technology is used to deploy higher education:

Figure 2. Intersection of Technologies used in higher education.

He notes that although these terminologies are used interchangeably, there are significant differences in their meanings. These forms of education, once considered somewhat esoteric and out of the mainstream of conventional education, are now assuming greater significance and in some cases becoming mainstream themselves. Educational institutions take advantage of available technologies to deliver education in various innovative ways.

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Blended Learning – Online and Face-to-Face Learning Experiences

Blended learning involves a combination of online and face-to-face learning experiences. Examples include flipped classrooms, online interactions followed by face-to-face teaching, and online learning supplemented by a face-to-face practical. The balance between independent and face-to-face learning varies from context to context and is very difficult to prescribe. The key is to ensure that what learners do when they learn independently is complementary to what they learn during face-to-face encounters. Garrison and Vaughan (2008) define blended learning as the “thoughtful fusion of face-to-face and online learning experiences.” This suggests a seamless integration of the learning that happens out of class and that which happens during class; for this to happen, the teacher needs to do a lot of planning. Although learning that happens out of class is independent, it must be structured.

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Blended Learning – Online and Face-to-Face Learning Experiences (Continued)

Integration of Learning Modes The figure illustrates how out-of-class and in-class learning should build on each other and be seamlessly integrated. Download the PDF to view the advantages of blended learning.

Figure 3. Three types of learning modes and how approaches overlap between them. Face-to-face courses and blended courses can both integrate ICT in teaching and learning. Blended courses and distance/online courses both can use open and distance learning.

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Online Learning

Lastly, we come to the topic of online learning. It refers to network-enabled teaching and learning that allows the learner to have increased interaction with content, teachers and other learners (COL, 2020b). It is the latest generation in the evolutionary growth of open, flexible and distance learning (Mishra, 2001). Online education is currently the most popular form of distance education. In recent years, it has become an integral part of many university offerings. Online learning includes massive open online courses (MOOC), which are popular with many institutions today. Again, it is a delivery mode that has been enabled by advancements in communication technologies, including the Internet.
Select the icons to know how students interact with the content during each phase of online learning.
Before Class During Class After Class Students engage with content for the next lesson. Use resources provided online or offline. Note any questions or areas where more clarification is needed. Students check their understanding of concepts through peer discussions and interactions with the teacher. New concepts to be covered are given.
Students consolidate what was learnt. They apply knowledge and skills gained. They move on to new concepts and content.
Download the PDF to view the advantages of online learning.

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The Impact of COVID-19 on Educational Delivery

The year 2020 was one of the most challenging in terms of running education systems smoothly. Because of the Covid-19 lockdown and social distancing measures, institutions were forced to close. As a result, both learners and teachers stayed at home. To avert an educational crisis, institutions had to be innovative to find ways of using technology to teach learners remotely. This was a unique time that called upon institutions to think out of the box and respond to the educational needs of the wide range of learners under their care. Emergency remote teaching emerged as the key to keeping the doors of learning open. Various types of software were also used to offer courses. ERTL saw a sudden upsurge in the use of learning management systems (LMSs) such as Moodle. As Hodges and colleagues argued, the primary objective in these circumstances was not to recreate a robust educational ecosystem but rather to provide temporary access to instruction and instructional support in a manner that was quick to set up and reliably available during an emergency or crisis (Hodges et al., 2020). Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning (ERTL)

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The Unintended Consequences of ERTL

For many institutions that cater to learners from poor socio-economic backgrounds, this shift to online provision posed challenges and yielded a lot of unintended consequences. Even for some of the well-endowed institutions, a shift to online provision overnight resulted in compromises to the quality of education. Emergency remote teaching and learning (ERTL) is different from online learning, where the institution gives itself time to prepare adequately before implementing the mode of provision. In emergency remote teaching, there was no time to plan, no training of teachers on how to teach online, and no proper design for online learning. Lecturers and students learned how to use new tools overnight. Tertiary institutions made structural changes, not only to physical infrastructure but also to their remote operations. There were also constraints related to online learning, mainly for disadvantaged learners, such as lack of reliable electricity supply, lack of stable connectivity and unequal access to resources. Even issues like homes that did not provide a conducive learning environment became huge constraints for some learners.

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The Unintended Consequences of Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning (ERTL) (Continued)

Result of the Constraints
As a result of the constraints, which played themselves out differently in varied contexts and affected different learners in a range of ways, inequalities in education were widened. Privileged learners who had ready access to technology continued making meaningful learning gains, while their disadvantaged counterparts were less privileged. A study in the Netherlands revealed a learning loss of about three percentile points or 0.08 standard deviations. Losses were up to 60% larger among students from less-educated homes (Engzell et al., 2020).

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Quality Challenges When Using Different Modes of Provision

Different modes of provision can be successfully used to enhance access, equity and quality in educational provision. This is particularly possible these days because of the availability of enabling technologies. It is amazing how technology has transformed the world in the past few decades, including how education can be provided and how learners can easily access information. As highlighted in the previous screens, the disruptive nature of technology was most pronounced at the beginning of 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. A whole lot of innovative pedagogical approaches have been made possible due to technology. Keep in mind the challenges to quality that might be posed due to varied modes of provision.

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Learning Should Not Be Confined to Physical Attendance

Technology has also brought up concepts like flexible learning. Learning should not necessarily be confined to physical attendance at a school. Learners can learn from anywhere and at any time that suits them because of the affordances of technologies. Important quality considerations where such learning happens are listed below:
The quality of reading materials learners will use Learning activities that are built into materials to encourage particular learning experiences The provision of instant feedback to learners on their responses to learning activities Creating opportunities for learners to interact with their peers and with a mentor (social presence) Finding a way of checking on learning progress, even if this means using a local mentor to do that

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Technology-mediated Learning

Technology has introduced yet another mode of learning. When an institution makes a deliberate decision to use technology-mediated learning, it is important to ensure that all learners are catered for. Knowing what technology will be used and how it will be used in the teaching and learning process is an important aspect of the planning process. Deliberate measures should be put in place to ensure that the teacher has ways of knowing what learners do when they learn independently. In blended learning in particular, the teacher has to establish how much of the learning time learners will spend online and how much they will spend in face-to-face encounters. Irrespective of the mode of delivery, it is always important to ensure that there is sufficient time-on-task for the learning outcomes to be achieved. To enhance the quality of blended and online learning, a good institution should have well-planned mechanisms of monitoring key aspects of delivery, such as instruction, learner support, and learner achievement (Commonwealth of Learning, 2005).

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Summary

In this unit, we learned about quality and quality assurance as applied in education. Let's review the key learning points we covered along the way. Select each icon to recall the learning journey.
Quality in education has to do with setting standards to be achieved within a given period of time. In setting those standards, an institution takes into account the needs of its key stakeholders, who include students, potential employers, and society in general. We learned the concept of quality assurance, which refers to all the mechanisms (structures, systems and processes) put in place to ensure that desired performance goals will be achieved. Quality assurance is a proactive process; we do not wait until we get to the end of the process to identify system weaknesses. Rather, we identify anomalies as we implement educational services, and introduce corrective measures early enough. So, quality assurance involves regularly collecting data, analysing the data and using the results to make improvements. We briefly covered how the Covid-19 pandemic affected educational delivery across the entire world, leading to better acceptance of online learning. A key message is that it is very unlikely educational institutions will revert to pre-Covid approaches to teaching and learning. Emphasis should be placed on ensuring that sound quality assurance systems are implemented to maximise learning gains for every learner, irrespective of their socio-economic status.

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