Assessing quality

Methods of quality assessment familiar from face-to-face education, in schools and universities, are not always helpful in other areas.   

Yet quality assurance in open and distance education, when done properly, is both more thorough and more trustworthy than for traditional, face-to-face methods.

Different measures of quality are available, not just pass and participation rates, but a variety of more sophisticated standards and procedures.

Whether it's e-learning or a correspondence course, home study or work-based learning, quality assurance, when undertaken by experts, can be both robust and reliable.

ODL QC are the experts

With nearly 40 years experience in the assessment and accreditation of open and distance learning, ODL QC has a unique expertise in this area.

Assessment by an ODL QC team includes:

• review of course materials by a specialist
• sampling of learner-tutor interactions
• self-assessment by the provider & review by ODL QC
• references from partners, awarding bodies & other third parties
• questionnaires to learners
• questionnaires to tutors
• onsite inspections if required

The standards published by the Council set out the framework against which those assessments can be made.

And the quality mark is a guarantee to both learner and provider that the opportunities on offer reach those standards.