Rethinking Quality of Distance and Online Learning

‘Quality’ of education has always concerned government policymakers, educational administrators, teachers, students, and parents. While we are all concerned about the quality of education, the notion of quality often differs according to socio-economic contexts and based on our personal experiences of quality. ‘Distance and online learning’ have also suffered largely from the poor public perceptions of quality until the Covid-19 pandemic that forced almost every education institution to adopt some form of online learning (usually referred to as Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT)). As we sailed through the pandemic, more people experienced some form of online learning and further strengthened their opinion about distance and online learning without having a clear understanding about the basic concepts, philosophy, principles and theories around learning at a distance. Needless to say, most ERTs offered knee-jerk reactions with limited time to do a detailed and planned action to systematically offer quality educational opportunities at a distance.

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It is more important to note that during the two years when humanity faced the challenge of maintaining social distance, there was hardly any discussion about the quality of distance learning. Several so-called innovative approaches adopted videoconferencing as online learning, replicating the classroom pedagogical models without any expectations of quality whatsoever. Such bandwagon effect raises questions: What is quality education? What is quality distance and online learning? Who defines quality? How is quality measured? Who decides on quality?

In the Quality Assurance in Higher Education: An Introduction, I have discussed the idea of quality as multi-dimensional derived from industry and management with several stakeholders. From a systems perspective, quality in higher education results from synergetic interactions of inputs, processes, and the people and technology deployed in the system. Any compromise in one aspect could affect the overall quality performance or perceptions. Considering the negative perceptions about distance education, quality has always been a concern for policymakers and educators, and as an industrialized form of education, several quality assurance methods are applied in distance teaching and learning contexts. Conducting a national student satisfaction survey is one way to measure quality. The Open University in the United Kingdom has consistently performed as a top university in such surveys and is amongst the top 10? universities in 2023. Open Universities in India, by regulation, have to set up a Centre for Internal Quality Assurance to take specific steps to ensure the quality measures defined by the UGC regulations for distance and online programmes.

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Commonwealth of Learning (COL), as an intergovernmental organisation, has many quality assurance tools to help open universities and dual-mode institutions to improve quality. In collaboration with several national quality assurance agencies, COL developed a toolkit on quality assurance for open and distance learning in 2009. Since then, COL has promoted the Review and Improvement Model for open universities as a continuous improvement approach. A COL-commissioned report in 2016 highlighted that quality assurance systems in the Commonwealth are “not keeping up with the times in regard to newer forms of ODL, such as eLearning” (Latchem, 2016). COL has since then developed several other toolkits to help educational institutions. Some of these are? A Guide for Implementing a Quality Assurance Institutional Review Tool for Blended Learning, Quality Assurance Rubric for Blended Learning, and Benchmarking Toolkit for Technology-Enabled Learning. These toolkits, along with the micro-course on ‘Quality Assurance of Blended and Online Learning,’ are useful sources for capacity building of institutions to offer quality distance and online programmes.

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Despite progress in improving quality, the question of the relevance of open universities and their quality continues to be an issue in the post-pandemic education system. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4, which urges governments to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all,” provides a new lens to measure the quality of educational institutions, especially that of open universities, which have the mandate to improve access to quality teaching and learning. Using the 17 SDGs, the? Times Higher Education Group ranks universities around the world on the impact they make to ensure that we have a sustainable planet to live on. The 2024 ranking presents only four open universities worldwide, with Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), Pakistan, in the 301-400 rank. It is also commendable to note that AIOU ranks 7th in the overall SDG4 ranking in 2024, moving from 25th in the previous year.

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Does the Times Higher Education Impact Ranking provide a better way to measure open universities? The methodology of the impact ranking?covers four critical functions: research, stewardship, outreach, and teaching. Universities are expected to report on SDG17 plus any three other SDGs to be ranked in the list. The metrics related to SDG4 indicate four critical areas:? research on early years and lifelong learning education, the proportion of graduates with a teaching qualification, lifelong learning measures, and the proportion of first-generation students. These are simple measures to rank institutions with colossal quality assurance systems but provide an opportunity for open universities around the globe to showcase their impact on SDG4. Several sub-indicators allude to openness and the sharing of research via open repositories, which are usually part of the routine activities of open universities, and this could be a way to be visible in the ranking.

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In addition to being visible and demonstrating the quality of ranking, open universities may also take several other steps, such as publicly sharing information about enrollment, graduates, cost per enrollment, alumni impact stories, and how distance education changed their lives. The hallmark of open universities is their cost-effectiveness and how they contribute to national development.? A London School of Economics study revealed that the total economic impact associated with the Open University’s activities in 2018-19 across the UK economy stood at ￡2.7 billion. In addition, the report indicated that the Open University contributed towards making its graduates more confident and improved their quality of life. There are many goals for open and distance learning, including employability, enhancing the quality of life, and creating learning societies. Rethinking quality in distance and online learning in the context of new social developments may help distance teaching universities to become more relevant. ?

?August 5, 2024.