The Iqtool Project: Developing a Quality Assurance Tool for Elearning

In order to establish and maintain the credibility of national educational systems, institutions and programmes in higher education it is necessary to assure the high quality of education provision. Quality Assurance (QA) systems can help us prove that the quality of student learning achieved using eLearning systems is equivalent to face-toface teaching methods. In this respect, Quality Assurance (QA) systems can provide valuable help. QA systems are designed to improve the quality of an institution’s methods educational products and outcomes. In case of eLearning, this includes the production and development of learning material, academic programmes and services. It also includes developing standards of student learning. The good reputation of an institution can be established with a consistent and systematic QA system. This includes the definition of standards about documented procedures, standard ways of responding to issues and clear accountability for outcomes. All these lead to better and more efficient processes, greater public confidence, more satisfied students and employees who feel better and more confident about their jobs. Also students experience improved quality learning, learning material and better interaction with the stuff. This leads to enhanced learning outcomes and to satisfied students who are likely to choose the institution again or recommend it to other students. The iQTool project (http://www.iqtool.eu/) targets VET institutions and professions with the aim to enable them develop a quality culture with respect to the eLearning services they offer. It develops a quality assurance methodology that they can follow to ensure high quality eLearning services and learning material. The methodology is the basis for the development of an open source quality assessment software tool that can be easily integrated with existing open source LMSs in order to facilitate the systematic evaluation of training material with respect to the proposed quality assurance methodology. The tool provides a standards-based approach to the creation of quality control questionnaires, the usage of these questionnaires for the evaluation of the quality of training materials as well as for the statistical processing of evaluation results to facilitate actions for quality improvement. Finally, the project develops appropriate training material to help its target group members learn about the quality assurance methodology used and how to use and take advantage of the software tool.