Swedish Association for Distance Education

Key Areas for Quality definition in eLearning

Key Areas for Quality definition in eLearning
To be successful in eLearning several key areas of quality should be fulfilled.

2002 the “Council for Higher Education” CHEA published the following seven key areas as criteria for measure eLearning quality:

  1. Institutional Mission
  2. Institutional Organization Structure
  3. Institutional resources
  4. Curriculum and instruction
  5. Faculty support
  6. Student support
  7. Student learning outcomes

In the same paper, three key areas are mentioned as challenges for quality assurance of distance education:

  • An alternative design of instructions (dealing with curriculum, student support etc.
  • Alternative providers of higher education (focus on all seven key areas mentioned before)
  • Expanded focus on training

You may download this interesting document from the CHEA-Website

http://www.chea.org/pdf/mono_1_accred_distance_02.pdf

The Virtual Teachers‘ Toolbox

The Virtual Teachers‘ Toolbox
Planning a distance learning course

The project aims to create a special virtual toolbox for teachers as a sophisticated tool for developing Open Online Distance Learning (OODL) courses which means open, online, flexible and technology enhanced education (OOFAT). The mixture of of the partners ensures the necessary competences, values, skills and knowledge for developing an innovative approach to OODL. This project uses a strategic cooperation between formal and non-formal/informal educational providers using ICT based teaching and the enhancement of digital integration in learning. It will be enhancing teachers’ professional development and support students‘ acquisition of values, skills and competences.

The 5 consortium members are well distributed in Europe:

  1. University of Crete, GR (specialised in innovative education) will focus on supporting students‘ acquisition of skills and competences,
  2. EBI/EIE, AT is a teacher training institution with experienced in Distance Learning impacts in enhancing teachers’ professional development and in OODL
  3. The I.T.E Vitorio Veneto, IT and
  4. Colegio Internacional Costa Adeje, ES are two high schools (offering a multicultural background) with different orientation in
    teaching and experienced in eLearning and modern teaching methods.
    The Colegio Costa Adeje is the coordinator in the project.
  5. The Swedish Association for Distance Education (SADE) has a special focus on OODL and OOFAT and provides experience in quality enhancement systems.

The VVT-Box methodology focuses on items which are either not yet common or still missing in Open Online Distance Education as a

  • Innovative approach to OODL
  • Appropriate quality enhancement framework
  • Innovative and completely new motivating self-evaluation method for students (Mandala method)
  • New developed innovative tool for course creators
  • Special training course for teachers to implement the new methods in course creation
  • Transferability and evaluation guide to enable the transfer to other educational fields

The EBI/EIE

European Initiative for Education

The „European Initiative for Education“ (EIE) is an international (European) private Non-Profit education and training organization in Austria (legal status: association). There are offices in Wiener Neustadt / Austria, Adeje/Spain, and in Athens/Greece.

Course in the modern computer lab of the EBI/EIE
Image: Course in the modern computer lab of the EBI/EIE (© Peter Mazohl, with the authorization of the presented trainees).

Mission

EIE’s mission is to endorse an innovative approach to education, training, and culture; this is done by using the method of „Blended Learning“ as an advanced technique of education and training. A new challenge for us is the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Community.

The EIE is integrated into a network of similar institutions in Europe; there are training organizations, educational establishments, research and development centers, public authorities, specialists etc.

The scope of courses is focused on Technology Enhanced Learning  (formerly called e-learning) with the learning platforms Moodle, Blended Learning; Multimedia (Interactivity and Multimedia Content), Content Management Systems, Presentation Techniques, and Project Management.

The EBI/EIE is not only a training association but also involved in research. The research team of the EBI publishes regularly the current research results and is involved as a speaker at international conferences, for example, the ICERI (in Seville).

Projects

We are actively involved in the Erasmus+ Programme and offer:

  • Training in the Frame of KA 1 projects (training for teachers, trainers, and adult learners)
  • Strategic Partnerships – KA 2 projects

Since the autumn 2013, the EBI/EIE is involved in European Projects or coordinates one. In 2015, the EBI/EIE and other partners from the BladEdu founded the European Foundation for Quality in Blended Learning, EFQBL, as a dissemination tool for Blended Learning. In consequence, the EBI/EIE cooperates regularly with this organization.

 

  • VTT-Box (School Education)
    This project has been finished in November 2019.
  • TIBL-Project (EFQUBL)
    This project has been finished in November 2019.
  • Flipped Adult Education (Adult Education)
    This project has been started in 2018 and finished finally in August 2021 (Prolonged due to COVID-19)
  • DigiComPass (Adult Education)
    This project aims to develop a course package to increase digital competencies of adults (following the DigComp 2.1 Framework)

 

  • CICERO (Adult Education)
    This project was dealing with digital competencies and digital photography. It was started with the Kickoff Meeting in Wiener Neustadt and finished with a final meeting at the University of Stockholm.
    The project was awarded as a “Project of Good Practice” by the Swedish National Agency.
  • TEST (School Education)
    This school project focusing on the development of multimedia-based learning tools for science subjects started in the autumn of 2018 and has been finished in 2021.
  • CONNECT (Higher Education)
    The project cares about the development of an innovative multidisciplinary and cross-sectional curriculum for students from the computer and information, health, and social sciences background.
  • InterMedia (Adult Education)
    This project cares about multimedia and interactivity in learning.

 

Here you will find an overview of all our ERASMUS+ Projects.

Research

The research unit of the organisation is led by Peter Mazohl and Harald Makl. Here you will find the overview of the EBI/EIE’s research work.