Ensuring quality assurance
Ensuring high quality of distance learning is essential for establishing credibility of DL and also for mobilising its demand Universities and Polytechnics that are now entering the DL area need to pay considerable attention to ensuring the quality of DL programmes..
DL programmes have specific requirements of quality control that differ from F2F provision and call for a differentiated approach to the accreditation of programmes, delivery of provision, handling of technical infrastructure, assessment of input and output quality, and processes of student assessment (see for quality issues at European level Laaser 2006).
Although some experts question whether distance learning needs special accreditation criteria compared to traditional teaching, there are specific DL features that require differential treatment. These concern the special features of DL students (usually part time), the use of electronic communication and study materials and the different ratio of staff to students. Distance learning provision needs to be assessed on such special features as coherence of media application and learning outcomes; usability and design of the software; media competencies; tutorial practices; and guarantee of constant access to technology. Quality assurance agencies have already started to develop more specific concepts to rate distance learning. Specific guidelines for e-learning have been developed under the label eBologna, and ENQA offers training workshops on this issue. EADTU has announced that it will be developing a framework for quality assurance in eLearning in co-operation with UNESCO.
It is not essential for Portugal to have an agency especially dedicated to distance learning. Instead, the newly established Portuguese higher education evaluation and accreditation agency could include specific quality criteria to be applied to distance learning programmes. Such a programme should cover the cases where DL may have no F2F requirements as well as situations where blended models are used. The existence of such a programme can provide the legitimacy that has been missing until now. As experience with evaluating quality of distance learning is a new field and Portugal too will have difficulty in finding domestic experts, it would be reasonable for the new agency to draw upon the experience of established European accreditation agencies.