A quarterly publication of AQU Catalunya
AQU Catalunya publishes the third volume of the Focus collection on university quality tools, dedicated to remote learning.
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In recent decades, remote learning, also known as e-learning, has undergone a very significant evolution, which has completely transformed the way higher education courses are taught.
From remote learning that was the terrain of a handful of universities in the system, focused mainly on the delivery of content through online platforms and asynchronous communication, in just a few years, thanks to a series of technological and methodological advances, we have moved to a scenario where the remote learning experience is much richer and more widespread. Indeed, in the last decade, e-learning has embedded itself in all types of universities and education centres, and the incorporation of methodologies such as real-time videoconferencing, interactive virtual classrooms and online collaboration tools have allowed for greater interaction between students and teachers. This has made it possible to create a more dynamic and participatory learning environment but it has also added important complexities to the design, implementation and evaluation of these courses.
In this context, it is important to remember that the crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic meant that in 2020, schools had to implement, from one day to the next and without having been able to plan for it, remote learning formats that allowed us to tackle the urgent situation of having to continue teaching in a non-face-to-face manner. This accelerated processes to virtualise teaching and changed (probably forever) the landscape of university studies in our system and everywhere else.
Currently, a nomenclature has been consolidated which classifies learning formats into on-site (or traditional) teaching, blended (or hybrid) teaching and online (or virtual) teaching. Increasingly, however, schools are presenting strategies of digitalisation and virtualisation of studies that tend towards hybridisation, pursuing a variety of objectives such as increasing flexibility and personalisation of studies, attracting new students and teaching staff, promoting the use of digital resources, etc. It is therefore necessary to look forward to a future in which this distinction between learning formats is likely to become less and less meaningful.
The quality assurance processes of university education, both those internal to the universities and external ones promoted by quality agencies, are by no means immune to this trend, and the debate on the quality of remote learning has been present in our environment for many years now. There is a consensus that online (and hybrid) degree programmes should be assessed under the same quality standards as face-to-face programmes in order to ensure that the quality of any degree can be recognised regardless of the format in which it is offered. However, the need to provide guidelines to steer the deployment of these quality processes has also become apparent. An example is the document Considerations for quality assurance of e-learning provision (ENQA, 2018), which, taking as a reference the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG), facilitates the adoption of criteria for the implementation and evaluation of e-learning.
With the clear objective of providing guidance to universities and assessment committees when faced with the design, implementation and evaluation of remote learning courses, last July AQU Catalunya presented the document Fully online or blended degree programmes. Number 3 in the Focus collection, it is aimed at those in charge of education centres and university degree programmes in order to support them in assuring the quality of the courses they offer. In preparing this document we have benefited from the experience of Dr Josep Maria Duart, professor in the field of education and technology at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, specialist in the educational uses of ICTs and their impact on higher education institutions, and president of EDEN Digital Learning Europe.
The introductory part of the document presents a definition of the learning formats and proposes a common framework for understanding the main concepts related to on-site and online learning. From there, guidelines and criteria are offered that help integrate, with quality guarantees, the institutional and strategic perspective, the quality policies and IQASs of the centres, and the methodological, teaching, technological and support requirements for students and teaching staff necessary for the design, implementation and evaluation of these formats.
We trust that this work will be of use to all those involved in the management of this transformation, which opened this article, and that it will contribute to the improvement of remote learning in Catalan universities.