ShareAQU Catalunya publishes the third volume of the Focus university quality tools collection, dedicated to remote learning
The aim of Focus 3 is to facilitate the design, implementation and assessment of degree programmes that use online or blended learning models. The collection offers universities a range of tools to help them improve quality.
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With the aim of helping universities in defining new degree programmes, AQU Catalunya has published a new instalment of the Focus collection. This time the spotlight is on providing tools for university quality. The document, the third in the collection, targets universities and assessment commissions to help them deal with the design, implementation and assessment of blended (also called hybrid) and fully online courses.
The impact of the pandemic on the Catalan university system led higher education institutions open up a process of self-reflection and debate. The lessons learned during this period of teaching and administrative emergency changed our perception of the transformations taking place and opened up new horizons for distance education, which Focus 3 now addresses. Both the teaching centres and the Agency have had to adapt the methodologies and assessment processes that university centres and degree programmes must undergo periodically to this reality of remote teaching. As such, the document provides tools so that this adaptation process can be more consistent and assertive across the board.
For example, Focus 3 lists a series of factors based on which we can define and implement remote and hybrid learning models. Among these factors are the pedagogical justification for adopting this remote form of learning, the characteristics of the students at which a programme of this type is aimed, the disciplinary field into which the programme falls and the possibility of carrying out online teaching or training of teaching staff in online education. In relation to the internal quality assurance systems (IQAS), the document also highlights the actions and strategies that must be undertaken by institutions and centres that wish to offer their degree programmes online.
The first document in the Focus collection was dedicated to degree programme profiles, specifically, to training objectives, graduate profiles and learning outcomes. The second focused on the assessment of learning outcomes.
