The Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance and Career Development

Representatives of AQA took part in an ENQA workshop, wich has been conducted in Sigtuna, Sweden.13.10.09

On 7-8 of October, representatives of AQA took part in an ENQA workshop, wich has been conducted in Sigtuna, Sweden. The workshop was dedicated to the development of evaluation approaches of eLearning at program and institutional levels. Although there are promising projects governed by other organisations such as the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU), the European Foundation for Quality in E-learning (EFQUEL), the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the Higher Education Academy (HEA), all these projects deal with e-learning as a separate issue. During the workshop there were there panel discussion concerning integration of eLearning evaluation in traditional accreditation procedures. The main conclusion is that the accreditation, audit and assurance process of e-learning should therefore be integrated in the national framework and not be evaluated separately. To this end, there is a need for methodological development within quality assurance agencies. At the same time, there is a need for increased cooperation between national agencies as e-learning enhances the development of cross-border education.