Training ODL staff for Quality implementation

The e-Quality project produces knowledge and methods to help the staff of higher education institutions to perceive and implement quality aspect in their work. The aim is to create practical materials and tools for actors involved with open and distance learning (ODL).

To raise awareness about quality in ODL and to develop and test materials and tools developed in the pilot project, training sessions were organized in the five participating countries. Sessions in France, Spain, Finland, Poland ,and Switzerland took place during the winter 2005/2006. Training sessions were evaluated, and materials were developed according to the feedback and experiences of the trainees.

To facilitate the learning process in ODL, many kinds of expertise are needed. Therefore, training sessions targeted different actors, specialists of ODL. Not only teachers, but technicians, tutors and administrative personnel were welcomed into the sessions. The idea was that the quality of a learning event in ODL relies on the success of every different steps, and thus is improved by the quality of the work of every actors. This choice promoted fruitful interaction between the whole team involved with the production of high quality training. Trainees were expected to have previous experiences with ODL, so their own opinions and perceptions represented an important part of training.

The following issue areas were covered in the training:

• concept of Open and Distance Learning (ODL)
• quality concepts and models
• concepts of role and activity
• concepts of student lifecycle and learning event
• student support process
• learning material design and production process
• tools for quality work: criteria and indicators

The training aimed an improved awareness on quality issues and on their importance in the context of the trainees' own work. The contents of the training session included information about the institutional, national and European levels of quality and the impact of cultural characteristics on implementing quality in ODL. From the processes related to ODL, the e-Quality project selected two sub-processes for a closer examination; the student support sub-process and the learning material production sub-process. The project examines the quality from the actors' point of view and introduces the concepts of role and activity into ODL. Relations of the two chosen sub-processes with roles and activities, and their interconnections in the implementation of quality were discussed in the training.

The project employs the concept of the student's lifecycle to define and illustrate the factors influencing quality. The student's lifecycle refers to the student's progress within an institution, from enrolment to graduation. The student's lifecycle will act as a counterpart for the other core viewpoint, roles and activities. Roles and activities are always examined in relation to students' progress and learning. Special focus is also brought on individual learning events within the student's lifecycle, as these events constitute the core of learning and teaching.

Existing standards and quality models are useful for assuring quality at an institutional level. However, for the benefit of individual learning events their use can be complicated and confusing. Actors need guidelines for the quality assurance of their everyday activities, and ways to pursue quality in their area of responsibility. In other words, the case here is not quality assurance of the whole institution or educational system, but quality work in the context of an individual course or learning event. In ODL, this is an issue area, which is not widely covered yet.

Developed in the e-Quality project, quality criteria as practicable tools were introduced for the trainees. These criteria can be used in different phases of the ODL process. This means that  criteria and indicators work  as elements of a checklist during the design of a learning event, as well as an evaluation tool for analyzing the quality of the learning event afterwards. A third dimension is to support the analysis of the outcome from the evaluation in order to assess the importance of different criterions, and to generate best practices and steps for action, which will rise from the experience of actors.

Although the criteria are viewed through individuals, they can also function as a mean for quality assurance. The evaluation of different areas requires versatile expertise, therefore co-operation between the persons holding the different roles would be beneficial. In this case, the evaluation may also promote co-operation between different actors. The evaluation may function as a learning process for the whole team working with the course.

The training sessions included face-to-face meetings and distance learning. The training materials were delivered to the trainees through traditional lectures as well as through virtual learning environments. Trainees were also expected to implement the knowledge obtained in their work. The training session evaluation consists in determining the differences of the trainee's understanding of quality in ODL before and after the training session. Materials were revised to take into account the training sessions to adjust the methodology and the core documents.