E-xcellence+

The E-xcellence+ project was selected in 2007, and funded from 1 October 2007 until 30 September 2009 by the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme.

The E-xcellence+ web site is at http://www.eadtu.nl/e-xcellenceplus/

Summary

In the E-xcellence - creating a standard of excellence for e-learning project, a quality benchmarking assessment instrument was developed that covers the pedagogical, organisational and technical frameworks with special attention on accessibility, flexibility and interactiveness. The instrument is supplemented by a full on-line manual. This is all available at http://www.eadtu.nl/e-xcellencelabel/.

In a second stage, E-xcellence was updated with the involvement of about 50 universities and 10 assessment and accreditation agencies in intensive local seminars (on a national level). Also, the instrument was finetuned to blended learning situations (in cooperation with ESMU).

This was done in the follow-up project E-xcellence+ that wanted to valorise the instrument at the local, national and European level for the higher education and adult education sectors. Furthermore, E-xcellence +, aimed to broaden the implementation and to receive feedback for enhancing the instrument.

To further introduce E-xcellence in the European HE system, on the national level, a close cooperation and involvement of assessment and accreditation bodies who cover the national higher education and adult education institutions was organised. Therefore, in all participating countries local workshops and training seminars for universities and assessment and accreditation bodies were organised on the subject of quality improvement of e-learning performance. This approach was integrated at university level itself as well as with the quality assurance agencies.

In the countries that already had a strong involvement of quality agencies the E-xcellence instrument was implemented in cooperation between the universities and the assessment and accreditation bodies. This cooperation included an exploration and fine-tuning of the current E-xcellence instrument to the contextual national setting and policy frameworks. All this to integrate the E-xcellence instrument in the institutional frameworks and the national policy frameworks.

Outcomes

Main outcome of the project was the E-xcellence Associates in Quality Label web site: www.eadtu.nl/e-xcellencelabel

Partners

• EADTU (The Netherlands)
• Open University (UK)
• Open Universiteit Nederland (The Netherlands)
• University of Oulu (Finland)
• International Telematic University UNINETTUNO (Italy)
• Nederlands-Vlaamse Accreditatie Organisatie (NVAO) (The Netherlands)
• Estonian Information Technology Foundation (EITSA) (Estonia)
• Högskoleverket / NSHU (Swedish National Agency for Higher Education) (Sweden)
• Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) (Spain)
• Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium)
• Czech Association of Distance Teaching Universities (Czech Republic)
• University of Hradec Králové (Czech Republic)
• Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava (Slovakia)
• Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics (MESI) (Russia)
• Universitäre Fernstudien Schweiz (Switzerland)
• Hungarian e-University Network (Hungary)

Status

The E-xcellence+ project was the second in a series of projects and initiatives on quality assurance in e-learning by EADTU:

- E-xcellence - creating a standard of excellence for e-learning (2005-2006), creating a quality benchmarking assessment instrument covering pedagogical, organisational and technical frameworks.

- E-xcellence Associates in Quality (launch 2010), the building of an e-learning benchmarking community of Associates in Quality. The E-xcellence Associates are focusing on the improvement of four priority elements of progressive higher education: Accessibility, Flexibility, Interactiveness and Personalization.

- E-xcellence NEXT (2011-2012), taking the third step in mainstreaming by integrating the instrument into the regular channels for QA (further European introduction, updating and extending the E-xcellence instrument and broadening the partnership on European and global level).

All information on the different tools and the E-xcellence Associates Label that grew out of these projects can be found on following website: http://www.eadtu.nl/e-xcellencelabel

An updated version of the E-xcellence Manual will be launched September 2012 (see http://www.eadtu.eu/e-xcellencenext.html)

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