Quality Standards in Online Education: The ISO/IEC 40180 Framework

Abstract

As higher education institutions (HEIs) make growing use of online education, enhancing and ensuring quality in online education (QOE) have become increasingly important for their competitiveness. Researchers and both national and international organizations have developed a variety of models, frameworks and guidelines for QOE. However, selecting from these a holistic quality framework that meets the needs and requirements of HEIs is challenging. This study reviews current QOE frameworks, guidelines and benchmarks used in diverse contexts, with reference to an analysis of 72 publications between 2000 and 2019, then introduces the ISO/IEC 40180 framework for quality assurance, quality management and quality improvement in IT-enhanced learning, education and training. The findings show that while no holistic quality framework for open education exists currently, ISO/IEC 40180 is a flexible and adaptable framework for revolutionary organizational change, meeting the needs of multiple stakeholders of educational organizations at the macro, meso and micro levels. Therefore, HEIs seeking to foster growth, competitiveness and international recognition are advised to consider adopting the ISO/IEC 40180 framework, which should be integrated into national quality education standards.

COVID-19 and rapid digitalization of learning and teaching: quality assurance issues and solutions in a Sino-foreign higher education institution

“…Again, there is little consensus, as it can be seen from many different dimensions (Esfijiani, 2018), with different meanings for different stakeholders. Instruments to measure quality include commercial instruments, government or national policy or standards and individual frameworks (Shraim, 2020), with indicators including accreditations, measurements and standardizations, at the micro (learner), meso (courses/programmes) and/or macro (institutional/national) levels (Shraim, 2020). He goes on to state that QA for online and QA for conventional or onsite programmes are not identical, and therefore there is a need to integrate online learning into national QA systems.…”

Predictors of the Use of ICTS in Higher Education: Relevance and Readiness of Universities for Their Implementation

“…ICT systems generally facilitate the educational process [4]. At the same time, quality assurance plays a key role in the success of electronic learning; therefore, the introduction of quality standards is crucial for the competitiveness of universities [3]. Despite the lack of a holistic quality structure of open education [4], the ISO/IEC 40180 framework for quality assurance, quality management, and quality improvement in IT-enhanced education is a flexible and adaptable framework for revolutionary organizational changes that meet the needs of a number of stakeholders in educational organizations at the macro, meso and micro levels; at the same time, most standards relate to the design of online courses and online programs [3].…”

“…At the same time, quality assurance plays a key role in the success of electronic learning; therefore, the introduction of quality standards is crucial for the competitiveness of universities [3]. Despite the lack of a holistic quality structure of open education [4], the ISO/IEC 40180 framework for quality assurance, quality management, and quality improvement in IT-enhanced education is a flexible and adaptable framework for revolutionary organizational changes that meet the needs of a number of stakeholders in educational organizations at the macro, meso and micro levels; at the same time, most standards relate to the design of online courses and online programs [3]. However, a number of modern structures and models for assessing the quality of education are based on theoretical conclusions -they have not been validated, are of non-specific nature and do not take into account technological evolution or different types of digital media and resources that can be integrated into learning [3].…”

“…This necessitates innovations in the educational process, among which the use of ICTs is a priority today [2], which is also related to the introduction of open education and its theoretical justification [1]. Higher educational institutions have started to increasingly often implement online learning programs; it is crucial for the competitiveness of universities, which are interested in improving and ensuring the quality of education they provide (QOE) [3]. Despite the active use of the Internet by most teachers and especially students, the use of information and communication technologies in higher education is hampered by the number of economic, technological, and psychological problems, difficulties and limitations.…”

Use of Data Mining Technologies in an English Online Test Results Management System

“…Mature online education platforms generally have a wealth of learning resources, they can support simultaneous access of multiple users, they are fast, convenient, and have greatly improved the learning efficiency of learners. Since online education has diverse forms and flexible teaching methods, the methods for examining the learning results of learners are relatively complicated [1][2][3][4]. Especially for English online tests, problems such as the massive volume of questions, the many and various question types, the heavy workload of test score statistics, and the low score query efficiency, are all issues demanding prompt solutions [5][6][7][8].…”