Appendix 2 Online learning quality standards, organisations and research
All sites accessible 2 October, 2019. Please report any dead or new links to tony.bates@ubc.ca
Canada
Barker, K. (2001) Creating quality guidelines for online education and training: consultation workbook Vancouver BC: Canadian Association for Community Education
BC Ministry of Education (2010) Standards for K-12 Distributed Learning in British Columbia v3.0 Victoria BC: BC Ministry of Education (still current in 2019). More about quality can be found on the BC Ministry of Education Distributed Learning web site
USA
Quality Matters http://www.qmprogram.org/rubric
Europe
European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education
New Zealand
Marshall, S. (2006). E-Learning Maturity Model Version Two: New Zealand Tertiary Institution E-Learning Capability: Informing and Guiding E-Learning Architectural Change and Development Project Report. Wellington NZ: New Zealand Ministry of Education
Australia
Vocational Education and Training E-standards for Training
South Africa
Quality Assurance Toolkit: Distance Higher Education Institutions and Programmes
Quality Assurance Toolkit for Open Schools
Commonwealth of Learning
Quality Assurance Microsite
Quality Assurance Toolkit: Teacher Education
Online education services for students
There are also other conditions beyond management and teaching that contribute toward high quality e-learning and online learning systems. Flexible transfer of credits that recognise qualifications taken online as well as face-to-face, and government web sites that provide accurate and reliable information about the quality of online programs available within their jurisdiction, are also essential components of a high quality digital learning system. For examples, see:
Research on quality assurance
Probably the best coverage of quality issues in both formal (for-credit) and ‘post-traditional’ (open, non-credit) online learning are the two papers published by Academic Partnerships:
Butcher, N. and Wilson-Strydom, M. (2013) A Guide to Quality in Online Learning Dallas TX: Academic Partnerships
Butcher, N. and Hoosen, S. (2014) A Guide to Quality in Post-traditional Online Higher Education Dallas TX: Academic Partnerships
If you use the category search on “quality” or “quality assurance” on my personal web site, tonybates.ca, you will find almost 60 articles or postings about this topic on this site.