Monday, October 18, 2010
8:30 AM-12:00 PM
Abstract:
Abstract: This workshop on quality assessment and assurance in online learning has been designed to train the participants in the emerging new approach to quality assurance in online learning. The objective is to fill a need that currently exists in the way quality assessment and assurance in online learning are planned and executed. A comprehensive approach to quality assurance and more precise tools for quality assessment and assurance will be presented and discussed in detail with illustrative examples in this workshop. The workshop will focus on: Program quality assessment - selecting and measuring key performance indicators of quality at the three levels - the institutional level, the program level, and the course level; Program quality assurance - systematically using comprehensive benchmarks and standards to meet the set standard of high quality and continuously improve quality at the three levels; Program design- using the systematic process to design, develop, and deliver high quality programs
Objectives:
Objectives
The overall aim of this highly interactive workshop is to build knowledge and skills in: developing, delivering, and managing high quality online programs; and in quality assessment and assurance in online programs.
The objectives of the workshop are
• To give participants a comprehensive, systemic understanding of all aspects of quality - Current status of quality assessment and assurance in online learning and the new comprehensive approach to quality
• To provide knowledge of cutting-edge tools, processes, procedures and benchmarks that can be used to
o Improve overall program quality, effectiveness, and efficiency
o Enhance learning, collaboration and knowledge sharing in online programs
• Analysis of organizational approaches to quality assessment and assurance
• To help participants, with a case study, to identify specific strategies for implementing a systematic process for quality assurance
• To present the participants with a comprehensive bibliography of valuable references related to benchmarking of quality in online educational programs
• To enable them to network with colleagues working in the area
Outline:
Topical outline of the content
Session 1: Current Status of Quality Assessment and Assurance in Online Learning and the Changing Landscape – A New Comprehensive Approach to Quality. [Duration 1 Hour]
Content description. The current approach to quality assurance in online education and currently used quality frameworks are inadequate and have serious limitations. The session starts with these limitations and inadequacies of the quality assurance process and frameworks and the existing need for a new approach to quality assessment and assurance. A new comprehensive approach to quality assessment and assurance that considers quality from the perspectives of all stakeholders, an approach in which quality is conceptualized and measured at multiple levels, and in which quality is measured using benchmarks, not guidelines, is the current need which is then discussed in this session.
Session 2: Quality Frameworks Based on the New Comprehensive Approach [Duration 1 Hour]
Content description: Discussion on quality tools – frameworks – based on the new comprehensive approach for quality assessment and assurance is the focus of this session.
Session 3: Quality Assurance Case Study [Duration 90 Minutes]
Content description: Quality assurance is a systematic process that starts on the day program planning starts and it involves a set of procedures derived from and designed to meet a comprehensive quality standard. These features of the quality assurance process are discussed in this session. The Master of Engineering in Professional Practice [MEPP] online program offered by the University of Wisconsin-Madison is an excellent example that illustrates how these features of this systematic process for quality assurance at program level are implemented.
Prerequisites:
Intended audience
Program administrators, team leaders, program coordinators and faculty of online degree programs.
Managers of corporate-based educational training enterprises who are committed to building both in-house and contracted online professional programs
Team leaders and professionals in key program support areas such as technical and instructional design, teaching, library and student services, and program evaluation and assessment
Intended Experience Level:
Beginner
Instructor Qualifications:
Summary of Instructor's Qualifications
Michael A. Mariasingam has a PhD in Continuing and Vocational Education from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His PhD dissertation was on Quality Criteria and Benchmarks for Online Degree Programs.
Dr. Mariasingam has developed a comprehensive set of quality standards in terms of rigorous measurable benchmarks for assessment of the quality of online degree programs. The framework is a major contribution to the field that adds a new dimension to the concept of quality and quality assurance, and provides a new tool for precise measurement and assessment of quality and quality assurance. He has published papers on quality in online programs and on systematic guidelines and procedures for developing and delivering high quality online programs. Currently he is writing a book on Quality Assurance in Online Learning.
Dr. Mariasingam has organized and facilitated interactive hands-on quality workshops on designing, developing and delivering high quality online programs and on quality assessment and assurance of online programs.
Dr. Mariasingam has a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in engineering and a Master’s and PhD degree in Continuing and Vocational Education.
Dr. Mariasingam helped establish new programs and faculties of engineering in Singapore, Malaysia, India, and Zimbabwe. He served as chairman, Department of Electronic Engineering and acting dean, Faculty of Engineering, at the National University of Science and Technology [NUST], Zimbabwe. He was coordinator of the Africa Virtual University Project at NUST and founding chairman of Electronic Science and Technology Program at Universiti Sains Malaysia, in Malaysia.
A frequent presenter at international conferences, Dr. Mariasingam has focused on quality in distance education, reforms and innovation in engineering education, alternative delivery approaches and alternative approaches to financing engineering education.