Quality in Distance Education is Still a Very Complex Issue

Existe una extensa producción de programas de Educación a Distancia, incluyendo TICs o en propuestas híbridas. Es extensa y no intensa, lo que supone ser reflexiva o de análisis evaluativo profundo de sus intentos. Es necesario conocerlas más de cerca por lo tanto es necesario establecer criterios para arribar a propuestas educativas confiables y de calidad. Se está lejos aun de criterios no hechos a priori para contrastar programas y materiales, si se trata de analizar los procesos en marcha y sus resultados reales, para validar indicadores de calidad y comunicarlos emitiendo juicios de valor y en su impacto social. Ello es preocupación también de la educación presencial aunque con otros rasgos característicos.There is a vast production of programs in Distance Education, including ICT or hybrid proposals. This production is extense but not intense in relation to being reflective or having a deep evaluative analysis of its attempts. It is necessary to have a closer look at them. Therefore it is necessary to establish criteria in order to reach trusworthy, quality eduactional proposals. It is still a long way from having criteria no prior to facts to contrast programs and materials, when trying to analyze ongoing processes and their actual results in order to validate and communicate quality indicators by passing judgement and in their social impact. That is also a worrying issue for face-to-face education; it has some other characteristics, though.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Students self-assessment in private education: the influence of the perceived quality in distance education courses for the sustained advantage of the institution

This paper investigates the relationship between the competitive aspects of the resources offered to the students and the self-assessment they do about themselves. For this purpose, a survey counting 4,671 valid learners’ entries from a private Brazilian educational institution was done. The survey involved constructs made by the institution related to the resource-based view theory. To test the scale’s reliability, the Cronbach’s alpha was used; the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was done to evaluate the normality; and the Spearman’s coefficient was also used to see the correlation between the indicators and the constructs; the Wilcoxon test was done to assess the balance among the constructs. It is suggested that the student’s self-assessment may influence the course’s quality assessment and the institution’s competitive advantage

Using Hybrid Effectively in Christian Higher Education

Hybrid is just one of a number of terms used for the convergence of face-to-face and online learning, At the University of Central Florida (UCF) they are called mixed mode courses, In the corporate world the most common language used for hybrid is blended learning, Blended learning, says Bob Mosher, is about using multiple learning modalities, which include, but are not limited to, the Web.7 The blended learning term is also being used more frequently within academic circles,8 Because of the inconsistency in how blended learning is employed, though, and because our goal is not to describe learning in general but to focus on individual courses, this article will use the term hybrid and will apply it more narrowly to mean a course in which face-to-face and online learning are integrated in such a way that the seat time of the course is reduced

Student Perceptions of Online Course Quality: A Comparison By Academic Discipline

The recent rapid proliferation of distance education necessitates the need for strong levels of academic accountability. An important factor found to influence and predict student success is students\u27 perceptions of their online courses. Understanding how learners perceive their online learning environment is paramount to effective course design and implementation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate community college students\u27 perceptions of online education. IHEP benchmarks for quality in distance education were used develop a web-based survey designed to measure if students\u27 perceptions of online course quality differed across academic disciplines, what factors impacted students\u27 perceptions of online course quality in regards to benchmarks for Teaching/Learning, Course Structure, and Student Support, and the level of impact of student demographics on perceptions of quality in online courses. No significant differences between groups were found to exist. Results showed that none of the factors investigated in this study, such as academic discipline, age, enrollment status, or previous exposure to college level online coursework, were found to have any effect on students\u27 perceptions of quality in online courses when compared between groups. These findings will provide valuable information to both online instructors and administrators in providing quality online education

Students’ Perception on the Quality of Open and Distance Learning Programmes in Tanzania

A controversial topic in higher education today revolves around the enormous growth of distance education. The issues surrounding quality of distance education have been discussed and debated by many different parties. Regardless of who is interested in this unique educational environment that distance education establishes, “all stress the need to have a better understanding of what contributes to quality” in distance education programmes. This study aimed at assessing the quality of open and distance learning programmes from students‟ point of view. The sample was drawn from the Open University of Tanzania‟s students in nine University regional centres from Tanzania mainland and it constituted 305 students. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed, since there is no single technique which is necessarily superior over the others. The factors assessed ranged from registration procedures, accesses to course instructors, administrative processes, course materials, instructional methods, clarity of syllabus, exam processes and the like. The findings showed that about 71.5% students have a positive perception on the overall quality of distance education in Tanzania. About 63.6% of participants were very likely to recommend open and distance learning to others, while 34.8% were somewhat likely to do so. The major weaknesses found were insufficiency of study material, internet services and academic staff in regional centres. The study therefore concludes that quality of higher education via open and distance learning is achieved by demonstrating that the quality of content, delivery, assessment and outcomes in ODL institutions is equal to, or better than, the traditional forms of education.Key words: open, distance, learning, quality, programme, perception, learner