Quality assurance in online education: The Universitas 21 Global approach

Despite the proliferation of online education, concerns remain about the quality of online programmes. Quality assurance (QA) has become a prominent issue, not only for educational institutions and accreditors, but also for students and employers alike. This paper describes some of the rather unique QA processes used at Universitas 21 Global (U21G), one of the new breed of online academic institutions, and its relation to U21pedagogica, the independent agency that approves U21G’s programmes. These distinctive QA processes relate to five main areas, namely, content authoring, courseware development, adjunct faculty recruitment, pedagogy and delivery. The authors believe that these QA processes have contributed significantly to student satisfaction and student retention at U21G. Furthermore, these QA processes can also be adapted to suit more traditional ‘brick-and-mortar’ universities offering online programmes. Introduction Over the past decade, online education has become increasingly more commonplace at institutions of higher education (Schrum & Hong, 2002). In 2001, 1979 out of the 5655 higher education institutions accredited by accreditors recognised by the US Department of Education or Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) offered some form of distance learning, some of which leads to degree acquisition (CHEA, 2002). Even as online programmes proliferate, many stakeholders remain apprehensive over the quality of online education in comparison with more traditional face-to-face forms of education (Barbera, 2004; Twigg, 2001). For instance, students are concerned about the richness of the learning experience and whether qualifications earned via online 134 British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 38 No 1 2007 © 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2006 British Educational Communications and Technology Agency. programmes enjoy comparable recognition vis-à-vis those earned through face-to-face programmes. Employers are concerned about the effectiveness of learning and whether an online programme can truly prepare students for roles in the workplace. Academics are concerned about academic rigour and level of intellectual stimulation and challenge. Similarly, governments and accreditation agencies are concerned about quality standards and the integrity of the institution delivering online education. Quality assurance (QA) therefore plays a critical role in allaying stakeholder concerns regarding the quality of online education, and is becoming an increasingly important aspect that educators, administrators and policy makers are finding hard to ignore. This paper examines the QA processes used at Universitas 21 Global (U21G), a newly established academic institution that delivers its academic programmes entirely online. Consistent with the practices in reputable academic institutions, U21G uses a variety of QA processes to ensure the quality of its programmes in areas such as curriculum review. More significantly, U21G has developed QA processes in a number of other academic areas germane to online education. The focus of this paper lies in the QA processes of five key areas, namely, content authoring, courseware development, adjunct faculty recruitment, pedagogy and delivery.