Epprobate

epprobate is the first international quality label for eLearning courseware. The quality label is an initiative of three organisations: The Learning Agency Network (LANETO), the Agence Wallonne des Télécommunication (AWT) and the e-Learning Quality Service Center (eLQSC).

epprobate's objectives are to:

• deliver a quality label focussing on eLearning products (courseware) rather than the teaching and learning processes within an organization (and thus act as a complement to process oriented quality labels)

• increase the acceptance of eLearning courseware through the provision of an international quality label

• facilitate a consensus building process around the meaning of quality for eLearning courseware and its assessment

• establish an international network of reviewers (pedagogical experts, domain experts, courseware developers) and of national partner organisations.

The key to the epprobate reviewing process is the application of the epprobate quality grid to the examination of a piece of courseware. Reviewers assess courseware in terms of specific criteria. Criteria are organised into four main sections of the quality grid:

• Course design (Provision of course information, learning objectives; Constructive alignment)

• Learning design (Learner Needs; Personalisation; Instructional strategies)

• Media design (Media Integration; Interface; Interoperability and technological standards)

• Content (Accuracy and values of content; Intellectual property rights; Legal compliance)

The first step in the review process is that the courseware producer (the applicant) provides a self assessment of the courseware in terms of the epprobate quality grid. The courseware and the self assessment document are then considered by a review team consisting of four reviewers who rate the courseware on a four point scale for each criterion (exceeds, meets, partially meets, fails to meet the criterion), and produce a written rationale for their decision. Not all criteria are relevant to all kinds of courseware and so the relevance and importance of each specific criterion is judged for each piece of courseware. The review team meet to reach a consensus view, and then invite the applicant to a meeting to answer any specific questions arising from the review. The report of the review team is then forwarded to the international awarding body, which consists of an international group of head reviewers together with the national partners, who make the final decision on the award of the epprobate label. The courseware provider receives detailed feedback three times during this process: after the meeting of the review team, during the subsequent meeting of the applicant with the review team, and after the meeting of the international awarding body.

An epprobate manual providing reviewers the necessary information to be able to carry out a review is available at: http://wiki.international-cv.net/index.php?title=Epprobate_Manual_for_reviewers

The epprobate website is at: http://www.epprobate.com

Status

Starting in May 2011, the ‘epprobate’ initiative developed its first prototypes including the review process and the quality grid. After ten months of development, epprobate was officially rolled-out on 21st of March 2012. ‘epprobate’ has identified national partners in around 30 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Pacific region, as well as in North and South America.