Presentation at Irish Conference on Engaging Pedagogy, 8th December 2022.

1. Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
Mark Brown
Eamon Costello & Prajakta (Lily) Girme
8th December 2022
The Quality Challenge of Digital Education:
Enabling [Tertiary] Education Providers to Make it Work

2. Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
“Quality is an elusive term
for which there is a wide
variety of interpretations
depending upon the views of
different stakeholders.”
(Schindler, et al., 2015, p. 4)
The Quality Challenge of Digital Education:
Enabling [Tertiary] Education Providers to Make it Work

3. Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
What does a quality student
learning experience look like in the
post COVID-19 digital era?
BIG question…
The Quality Challenge of Digital Education:
Enabling [Tertiary] Education Providers to Make it Work

4. Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
• What QA standards and processes are required for
blended, hybrid and online learning?
Three sub-questions…
The Quality Challenge of Digital Education:
Enabling [Tertiary] Education Providers to Make it Work

5. Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
• What QA standards and processes are required for
blended, hybrid and online learning?
• Are our existing QA standards sufficient?
Three sub-questions…
The Quality Challenge of Digital Education:
Enabling [Tertiary] Education Providers to Make it Work

6. Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
• What QA standards and processes are required for
blended, hybrid and online learning?
• Are our existing QA standards sufficient?
• Do they need to differ from those already in place for
more traditional delivery modes?
Three sub-questions…
The Quality Challenge of Digital Education:
Enabling [Tertiary] Education Providers to Make it Work

7. Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
• Quality concerns are not new
• Delivery mode is not the key factor
• Definition wars are largely unproductive
The Quality Challenge of Digital Education:
Enabling [Tertiary] Education Providers to Make it Work
Three assumptions…

8. Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
Quality concerns are not new…
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/why-we-need-to-reconsider-the-value-of-the-virtual-classroom-1.4059247
Oct
2019

9. Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
2002
2004 2005
Quality concerns are not new…

10. Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
Delivery mode is not the key factor…
https://eddl.tru.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/PreparingDigitalUniversity-George-Siemens.pdf
2015
“Distance education, when properly
planned, designed, and supported by
the appropriate mix of technology and
pedagogy, is equivalent to, or in
certain scenarios more effective than,
traditional face-to-face classroom
instruction” (p. 11).
2004

11. Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
Delivery mode is not the key factor…
“The overarching paradox is
that online and distance education
systems with their digital content and
the persistent record of online
transactions provide a rich source of
evidence to enable quality assurance
and audit processes.
https://www.pedocs.de/volltexte/2015/10879/pdf/Ossiannilsson_et_al_2015_Qualitymodels.pdf

12. Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
Delivery mode is not the key factor…
“The overarching paradox is
that online and distance education
systems with their digital content and
the persistent record of online
transactions provide a rich source of
evidence to enable quality assurance
and audit processes.
If open and distance learning were the current
dominant mode of Higher Education… the
challenge would lie in how to quality assure a
form of education in which interactions at the
core of the system were ephemeral, highly
dependent on personal interpretation by the
teacher and student and seldom directly
monitored”
(Ossiannilsson, et al., 2015, p. 16).
https://www.pedocs.de/volltexte/2015/10879/pdf/Ossiannilsson_et_al_2015_Qualitymodels.pdf

13. Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
Definition wars are largely unproductive…
“Importantly, the learner’s
location is a key determinant in
naming the mode”
(Johnson, Seaman & Poulin, 2022, p. 106)
https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/article/view/3565
On-campus
Off-campus

14. Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
Definition wars are largely unproductive…
K
I
S
S
On-campus
Off-campus

15. Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
QA / QE
Processes Resources
I
n
p
u
t
s
O
u
t
p
u
t
s
Gap
Digital
Education
- Macro-Level
- Meso-Level
- Micro-Level
- Nano-Level
• Multifaced and
multifunctional
• Highly contextualised
• Institutions are central
• Owned & distributed
across institutions
• Conversational,
shares experiences
and involves feedback
loops
• Dynamic as part of a
living and thriving
quality culture
Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
The Quality Challenge of Digital Education

16. Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
• EUA Digi-HE Project
• OECD Digital HE Project
• QQI QA Statutory Guidelines Project
The Quality Challenge of Digital Education
Three QA initiatives…

17. Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
2021
https://eua.eu/downloads/publications/digi-he%20desk%20research%20report.pdf

18. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08923647.2018.1417658
• An abundance of QA frameworks
• Many common dimensions shared across
the different QA frameworks
• Absence of output measures of QA
Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
Only 12%

19. 2022
Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/digital-higher-education_f622f257-en

20. • Online education: teaching and learning predominantly
takes place off-campus, either synchronously or
asynchronously, or in combination.
• Hybrid education: teaching and learning involves a mix of
on-campus and off-campus study, with some synchronous
online delivery.
• Blended education: teaching and learning predominantly
takes place on-campus through face-to-face study with some
asynchronous delivery.
Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash

21. Including Ireland
Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash

22. https://mfhea.mt/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Guidelines-for-FHEI-V1.pdf
Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash

23. (Brown, 2022)
Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
• Lack of
Implementation
Guide
• Lack of Action
Plan
• Limited research
on whether they
are used by
institutions and
if so, how
• Lack of
alignment with
mainstream QA
requirements

24. Most
Common
Least
Common
(Brown, 2022)
Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
Aggregated summary…

25. Closing the evaluation
loop by giving data back
Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash

26. Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
2018

27. https://digitelpro.eadtu.eu/images/IO5A1_Student_Readiness_for_Digital_Learning_Literature_Review_FINAL_250822_1.pdf
Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash

28. Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
What in a single word is the most
important quality consideration
that you would like to see in the
new QQI guidelines?

29. Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
What else is missing?
Gap analysis…

30. Photo by Tom Pottiger on Unsplash
Where to from here…
Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash

31. Photo by Tom Pottiger on Unsplash
Where to from here…
Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
To Make it W
ork
2021

32. Photo by Tom Pottiger on Unsplash
2018
2022
Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
Where to from here…

33. Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
Where to from here…
What does a quality student
learning experience look like in the
post COVID-19 digital era?

34. Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash
Where to from here…
Chocolate is always
the answer no matter what
the question!

35. Key references
Staring, F., Brown, M., Bacsich, P., & Ifenthaler, D. (2022). Digital
higher education: Emerging quality standards, practices and
supports, OECD Education Working Papers, No. 281, OECD
Publishing, Paris,https://doi.org/10.1787/f622f257-en.
Volungevičienė, A., Brown, M., Greenspon, R., Gaebel, M., &
Morrisroe, A. (2021). Developing a High-Performance Digital
Education System: Institutional Self-Assessment
Instruments. European University Association, Brussels.
Beirne, E., Mac Lochlainn, C., Brown, M., & Nic Giolla Mhichíl,
M. (2022). Student readiness for online learning: A systematic
literature review. Report published for DigiTel Pro, European
Assoication for Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU), Maastricht,
The Netherlands.
Simunich, B., E. McMahon, L. Hopf, B. Altman and W. Alicia
Zimmerman (2021), “Creating a Culture of Online Quality: The
People, Policies, and Processes that Facilitate Institutional Change
for Online Course Quality Assurance”, American Journal of Distance
Education, DOI: 10.1080/08923647.2021.2010021
Ossiannilsson, E., K. Williams, A. Camilleri and M. Brown (2015),
Quality models in online and open education around the globe: State
of the art and recommendations. International Council for Open and
Distance Education, Oslo, Norway.
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED557055.pdf
Esfijani, A. (2018), “Measuring quality in online education: A
metasynthesis”, American Journal of Distance Education, 32/1, pp. 57-
73, DOI: 10.1080/08923647.2018.1417658

36. Go raibh maith
agaibh!
Thank you
Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash