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Take a look at these articles, appears in EURODL.
Exploring the mechanisms for assuring quality of e-learning courses in UK higher education institutions by Magdalena Jara and Harvey Mellar, publishing 10.03.2007.
Abstracts
This paper reports on a research study aimed at understanding how dual mode higher education institutions in the UK approach the application of their internal quality assurance procedures to their online courses in order to allow them to assure and enhance their quality.
The research strategy aimed to identify whether the procedures implemented were capturing the aspects that characterise online courses. A case study approach allowed an examination of the procedures as well as the features of the courses under study.
The results indicate that the specific quality assurance procedures most affected by the online modality were module evaluations, student representation and team meetings.
Open and Distance Learning: Does IT (Still) Matter? by Vitor Cardoso and Jose Bidarra, publishing 10.03.2007.
Abstract
The evident standardization of Information Technology (IT) in education, by way of the widespread adoption of robust and dependable Learning Management Systems (LMS), has made distance learning courses possible and easy to mount, even in institutions or universities that had no previous experience in online education.
However, based on evidence gathered through the ODL-NET Experience project, we were able to identify major usability problems, quite a number of user difficulties and many LMS limitations.
The results of the study show that technology is the solution, on one hand, and that technology is [still] the problem, so the saying technology matters is up to date, even if it represents only one component of a complex blend, involving others like educational organizations, learning content, pedagogical strategies, etc.
