Presentation by Jon Rosewell (OUUK) during the EADTU-ENQA Peer Learning Activity in Brussels on 21-22 September 2017

1. Analysis of questionnaires
Jon Rosewell
PLA on blended & online HE
21-22 Sept 2017, Brussels

2. 2
QA agency – main issues
● Strategy and planning for blended learning
● Cross institutional consistent approach backed by governance
● Consistent approach with all collaborative partners
● Infrastructures and resources - researched as fit for purpose
● Learning resources, materials and delivery mechanisms
● Approval processes for programme design and accreditation
● Management of assessment and authenticity
● Published expectations on blended learning
● Support available to learners and equality of opportunity

3. 3
QA agency – main issues
● finding peers with expertise in the field of study (of the planned
program) as well as ICT-based modes of teaching and learning
● a more differentiated role system between authors (responsible
for the content), teachers, online editors, tutors, etc. than in
traditional study programmes on campus
● When it comes to QA the Swedish Higher Education Authority
doesn't make a difference between campus, blended or online
programmes.
● Our Agency has already set the specific standards and criteria for
safeguarding the quality of distance learning programmes. These
criteria and standards are used for both internal and external
evaluation.

4. 4
A rough and ready analysis!
Qualitative analysis of HEI responses
●Responses for all questions lumped together
●All responses tagged, with themes emerging from text
●Positive and negative comments not distinguished
●Tags categorised
● Strategic management
● Curriculum design
● Course design
● Course delivery
● Course evaluation
● Student support
● Staff support
● Quality assurance

5. Tags by category
5

6. Tags – with 3 or more occurrences
8
mod_accessibility

7. Tags – with 3 or more occurrences
Row Labels Sum of Count
Course delivery 9
vle_platforms 9
Course design 10
mod_accessibility 4
mod_modern 3
mod_synch 3
Curriculum design 8
cur_flexibility 4
cur_modern 4
Evaluation 22
eval_analytics 3
eval_dropout 3
eval_general 3
eval_of_teachers 5
eval_student_feedback 8
Miscellaneous 15
misc_admin 3
misc_finance 4
misc_language 5
misc_local_centres 3
Quality assurance 37
qa_accreditation 5
qa_external 4
qa_general 4
qa_indicators 4
qa_instrument 4
qa_internal 11
qa_unit 5
Staff support 9
hr_staff_skills 4
hr_staff_training 5
Strategic management 23
sm_blend 5
sm_digitalization 4
sm_online 3
sm_open 4
sm_other 4
sm_planning 3
Grand Total 133
9

8. 10
What are main issues for blended and online?
●Staff support – staff skills, staff training
● Huge differences … regarding the pedagogical skills needed
● Network of “digital tutors” … peer groups … networking events
● Digimentors supporting teachers
● Institute for Distance Education … provides … on-demand staff-training
● The university has provided only little support to teachers and staff
● Media specialists
● Professional infrastructure and support for the creation of AV
●Staff support – workload
● Capacity of teachers and other staff
● Small number of faculty members, small numbers of administrative personnel
to support the increase of programmes and increased number of students

9. 11
What are main issues for blended and online?
●Curriculum design – flexibility
● Ability to quickly answer to emerging labour market needs with effective
programs
● Flexibility in didactic provision
● Inflexible process … rapid response to externalities is a problem
●Curriculum design – modernisation, employability
● Need to modernize current programmes of studies
● New programmes needed with employment prospects in mind

10. 12
Are there strategies for online & blended?
●History matters – ODL, online only, campus, …
● Provides open and distance education at both undergraduate and
postgraduate levels
● Providing Bachelor and Master degree programs fully online
● Increase online education … lifelong learning … independent of time and place
●Digitalization
● Holistic strategy for digitalization
● A long history of e-learning … choice of media … further shift to online
● Lifelong learning / continuing education
● Adult education will be the piloting area.
● Integration of degree education with more flexible programs for continuing
education and open education

11. 13
Examples of good practice?
●General
● Open University practices inside the University
● Open University system for Finnish students
●Collaboration and partnership
● Common curricula / double degree … developed and produced with the
collaboration of the best professors from all the Euro-Mediterranean area …
fully available in 4 languages … students from 60 countries. … a real network
of institutions and people.
● TEL / AV units
● Institute manages pilot programs and innovation, also provides [advice and
training], guidelines for creation of educational resources and peer review.
● No Educational Materials Laboratory yet in operation to promote … the
development of multimedia/multiformat educational material.

12. 14
Issues for blended learning?
●General
● Curriculum framework, evaluation of curricula
● Low students' participation in face-to-face group tutorials, thus most
programmes employ online teleconferences and not blended education.
● Geographic dispersion of students and tutors.

13. 15
Issues for Quality Assurance?
●Instruments
● Choice of the best quality system
● Accreditation
● The negotiation of fair indicators for quality assessment
● Good practice
● Quality work is well integrated inside the education. It is not a separate
issue.
● The quality assurance culture has been built from the foundation of the
Institution.
● Other
● The identification of international students online

14. 16
Yes – but mix of internal and external
Do you use a systematic approach?
●Instruments
● Development of an specific ERP / EFQM label / E-xcellence label
● Our internal quality assurance system has been certified by the national
agency
● QA unit
● Permanent steering group for the quality / QM Manager
● A university QA body is in charge of verifying and put in practice the
strategic objectives of quality improvements. … defines year objective and
measures the compliance of all the University staff
● Quality assurance unit conducts yearly assessment [which collates wide
variety of information] stakeholders receive statistical analysis reports.
● QAU conduct external evaluation every four years with the national
accreditation agency

15. 17
Other – course design
●Accessibility (re disability)
● Specialised unit … deals with accessibility matters
● Accessible (re low prior educational attainment)
● Modern and accessible educational material
● Diversity range of our students may be challenging
● Accessibility for all kind of students
● Synchronous tuition
● A challenge to get students to attend any synchronous tutorial provision
● Low students' participation in face-to-face group tutorials, thus most
programmes employ online teleconferences
● More hybrid and online teaching takes place. Face-to-face group tutorials are
rather limited.
● Skype and other synchronous communication channels

16. 18
Other – course delivery
●Platforms
● [Good practice:] Udacity, Coursera, EdX
● Common study platforms with other UASs and universities
● Flexible study platforms
● State-of-the art eLearning platform based on Moodle
● A mixed [blended] model … now based on an on-line platform and a set of
OER, with different combinations for degree education, continuing education
and open education.

17. 19
Other – evaluation
●Analytics – learning / course
● learning analytics used to help teachers
● production of indices for students’ performance (e.g. success rate, grade
distribution)
● Student feedback
● Use of students' feedback questionnaires at the end of each academic
semester
● Students assessing tutors’ e-learning/e-teaching practices, educational
material quality, module design/organization and quality of administration
services
● Evaluation of teaching staff
● Module coordinators assessing tutors’ e-learning/e-teaching practices

18. 20
Other – miscellaneous
●Financial
● Financing. MOOC's sustainable business models, especially for Universities.
● It has been cost-effective solution to increase flexibility of education.
● Lack of resources for high quality multimedia/multiformat educational
material.
● Language
● English as a second language … English is increasing in the delivery of the
courses
● “Language Education for Refugees and Migrants” has been recognized as an
example of good practice
● Work in two languages
● Available in 4 languages (italian, english, french, arabic) [by] simply subtitling
or oversounding the videos
● Other
● [Compared to online teaching:] The degree-education and research get a major
attention in the university.