Blog post: Reflections on the UNESCO World Higher Education Conference 2022 from an ICDE student member
The Roundtable organised by ICDE with ICDE members from around the world.
Localising Global Standards: Cross Border Quality Assurance for Online, Open and Distance Education
How do you define “quality” in online, open and distance education (ODE)? How does your definition of “quality” in ODE adapt to unique social, political, economic and cultural contexts across international borders? How can an ODE quality assurance framework from one region translate to an online, open and distributed university across the globe?
These are the critical questions that centred the roundtable discussion at the UNESCO World Higher Education Conference 2022. ICDE’s Secretary General Torunn Gjelsvik was joined by leaders representing world regions to discuss current and potential challenges and opportunities regarding quality in ODE. The panellists, Mansoor Al Awar of the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University (HBMSU), Deb Adair of Quality Matters and International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE), Hussein Baghirov of the Western Caspian University, Asha Kanwar of the Commonwealth of Learning (CoL) and George Ubachs of the European Association for Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU), drew from their professional experiences to address quality dimensions for ODE higher education institutions.
To situate the conversation, Al Awar presented an overview of the Consortium for the Benchmarking Framework for Online, Open, Smart, and Technology-enhanced Higher Education. This international partnership, consisting of 20 institutional partners, originated by Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University in 2019, utilised a Delphi technique to identify 39 quality indicators. The quality indicators of the Benchmarking Framework include six dimensions: teaching and learning, learner services, technology environment, diversity and inclusiveness, organisational aspects, and outcomes and impact on society. What makes the Benchmarking Framework unique is the primary focus on measuring and testing the applicability and usefulness of globalised quality dimensions in localised contexts. In an effort to develop valid measures, institutional partners were invited to pilot and implement preliminary indicators to document evidence and suggest areas for improvement.
Based on the pilot, quality indicator statements were refined, and an online dashboard was created to ensure transparency to support continuous improvement efforts among university members. Initial implementation feedback suggests that piloting universities were focused on organisational aspects, diversity and inclusion, and outcomes and impact on society within the quality framework. Although the panel presentation did not discuss the pilot results, a report is expected in July 2022, which will provide deeper insights into the development and measurement of the Benchmarking Framework.
Starting the Dialogue
Building on this foundation, Secretary General Torunn Gjelsvik initiated a dialogue with the panellists, which converged into the interplay of four themes.
Open, Accessible, Agile Models
Technological Trends and Innovation
Equity and Inclusion for all Stakeholders
Measuring Quality Inputs and Outputs
Panellists called for quality dimensions to exist in open ecosystems that, as Al Awar stated, “have the ability to transform” and “remain agile to international developments and trends.” However, given that quality is created from social, political, economic and cultural values, the complexity of untangling these concepts into a universal and responsive framework is challenging. Kanwar questioned, “how can quality be agile and embrace agile developments? With so much openness, how can we ensure they meet?”
Open, accessible and agile models are dependent on communication technologies, including the internet. The field of ODE has a paralleled history and evolution with communication technologies, in which Ubachs shared, “quality frameworks based on technology require ongoing and rapid, agile developments.” Adair suggested, “we need policies for internet access,” implying that internet access should be a fundamental human right in today’s knowledge society. Baghirov reminded us that “technology is not universal, ” thereby suggesting that ODE quality dimensions must be inclusive of all distributed delivery models and encourage the development of open educational systems focused on multimodal learning resources.
Beyond technology and adaptive models, Al Awar described another challenge in cross-border quality assurance “is to sustain a community of ongoing continuous improvement that is relevant.” His assessment is accurate; how can quality dimensions be generalisable to all contexts and remain relevant and meaningful? For example, quality dimensions and performance indicators relevant to one university building and improving a student support system may not be as useful and meaningful for another university with a robust and highly effective student support system. According to the panel, collaboration and communication are a way to develop relevancy in quality dimensions. Kanwar recommended that benchmarking is an effective regional-level process that can be used as a collaborative tool to create a sense of ownership among stakeholders to localise quality. Ubachs made calls for communication and collaboration within and beyond regions to develop transparency on competencies that could be supported through regional training and micro-credentialing to support upskilling and lifelong learning. At the same time, Adair identified that “practitioners and quality assurance specialists must continue to evolve together” to inform practice and utilise standards to drive change. Al Awar also advocated for practitioners to “learn from each other for horizontal exchange of practices among universities and create a sustainable dialogue with free information and reciprocity.”
How do we engage stakeholders?
Although collaboration and diverse voices are pertinent to addressing this macro-level challenge, Gjelsvik reflected on a critical point, “How can we engage multiple stakeholders? Does it have to be a top-down or bottom-up model?” One of the dimensions of the Benchmarking Framework and themes of this roundtable discussion is equity and inclusion. Adding to the conversation, Kanwar suggested that quality is not universally equitable, therefore, she critically questioned, “how does quality fit equity and inclusion?” Perhaps, to answer these questions, we should consider the voices of the transnational student and how they define quality in their experience within cross-border education. What barriers do transnational students encounter? How can instructors, support systems, institutions, agencies and policymakers reduce barriers to transnational student success? What are the affordances of a cross-border education? In order to support more openness and collaboration, the student perspective is a diverse stakeholder group that should be equally engaged to inform and co-design quality dimensions.
As the panel concluded, the roundtable discussants described the future of education as open and online, focusing on student mobility and interconnectedness in the digital space. According to Baghirov, the global pandemic created an opportunity to demonstrate how ODE can be more accessible and convenient to the world. Therefore, it is imperative that as ODE continues to expand, we must incorporate quality frameworks with a more profound understanding and measurement of institutional inputs and outputs. In order to meet this need, “benchmarks support the process,” stated Ubachs and Al Awar confirmed that “ benchmarking is more than course-level quality; it assists institutions with an ecosystem to improve outcomes.” By recognising that quality is a process, evaluating quality should focus on “learning outcomes; they are what count,” said Kanwar.
Written by:
Rebecca Heiser
ICDE Student Member and PhD Candidate
Athabasca University
Read a short summary of the conference by ICDE Secretary General Torunn Gjelsvik here: https://www.icde.org/icde-news/unesco-whec22-icde-in-two-panels
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