Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Open and Distance Learning

2021 ◽  
pp. 1079-1097
Author(s):  
Vimbi Petrus Mahlangu
Keyword(s):  
Quality Assurance ◽  
Distance Learning ◽  
Total Quality Management ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Total Quality ◽  
New Public ◽  
The World ◽  
Open And Distance Learning

The purpose of this chapter is to argue that all open and distance learning (ODL) institutions should carry out quality assurance and accreditation processes in order for students and funders to have confidence in them. It also explains in detail what quality assurance and accreditation entails in ODL. This chapter follows a qualitative approach in understanding quality assurance and accreditation in ODL. Data were collected via literature review. During recent decades, the discourse and practices of systematic quality assurance and quality control have spread around the world, resulting to a great extent in market-based models related to the ideology and policy of neo-liberalism and expressed in economic rationalities such as new public management, total quality management, public choice, and human capital. Quality assurance and accreditation in ODL aims to maintain and raise the quality of education and to guarantee the improvement of its standards.

Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Open and Distance Learning

2018 ◽  
pp. 146-169
Author(s):  
Vimbi Petrus Mahlangu
Keyword(s):  
Quality Assurance ◽  
Distance Learning ◽  
Total Quality Management ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Total Quality ◽  
New Public ◽  
The World ◽  
Open And Distance Learning

The purpose of this chapter is to argue that all open and distance learning (ODL) institutions should carry out quality assurance and accreditation processes in order for students and funders to have confidence in them. It also explains in detail what quality assurance and accreditation entails in ODL. This chapter follows a qualitative approach in understanding quality assurance and accreditation in ODL. Data were collected via literature review. During recent decades, the discourse and practices of systematic quality assurance and quality control have spread around the world, resulting to a great extent in market-based models related to the ideology and policy of neo-liberalism and expressed in economic rationalities such as new public management, total quality management, public choice, and human capital. Quality assurance and accreditation in ODL aims to maintain and raise the quality of education and to guarantee the improvement of its standards.

Does Citizens’ Self-Identification of Their Public Role Affect Their Satisfaction with Public Services?

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-100
Author(s):  
Hemin Choi ◽  
Jong Seon Lee
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Role ◽  
New Public ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Service Expectations ◽  
Manova Analysis

This study investigates how citizens define their role qua citizen and how the public role they assign themselves matters in their assessment of satisfaction with public service performance. We compared survey respondents who identified their citizen role as customer (n=280), partner (n=353) or owner (n=467) to test this relation. Theoretically, the dominance of New Public Management (NPM) scholarship has resulted in the framing of citizens as simply customers, but our empirical study finds that citizens consider themselves more as partners or owners of government. This mismatch in conception was our research hypothesis for further research. We then ran a number of t-tests and carried out a MANOVA analysis, the results of which indicate that there is a significant difference between the customer and partner groups regarding expectations and satisfaction on the quality of their living area but not regarding performance. There is also evidence that shows that the role citizens assign to themselves is related to their public service expectations but that the connection between their view of their role and their assessment of performance is weak.

Quality Assurance in Open and Distance Learning

2021 ◽  
pp. 22-35
Author(s):  
Amir Manzoor
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Quality Assurance ◽  
Distance Learning ◽  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Case Analysis ◽  
Access To Higher Education ◽  
Open And Distance Learning ◽  
Learning Institutions

Today, open and distance-learning universities are regarded as a groundbreaking option to expand access to higher education. Economies of scale supported by a large number of enrolments have fueled the growth of open and distance learning institutions (ODLIs) across the globe. At the same time, many have raised serious concerns about the quality of education provided by ODLIs. This chapter presents a comparative case analysis of quality assurance (QA) programs in distance education at two large open and distance learning universities in Pakistan. The study explored QA policies and their implementation in the context of management practices and structures and internal and external environmental factors.

scholarly journals DEVELOPMENT OF A STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN GREEK PUBLIC SCHOOLS

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioannis Arvanitakis
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
The Political ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Quality Service ◽  
Total Quality ◽  
New Public ◽  
Time Frames ◽  
Management Issues

The New Public Management, as a philosophy, focuses on providing more quality service to the citizen by delivering it to "the customer", a concept derived from the theory of Total Quality Management. Besides, it contributes to optimizing the decision-making process by linking costs - benefits and taking into account emerging efficiencies, as well as achieving predetermined results - objectives set in specific time frames. Concepts such as indicators, performance, evaluation, due to misuse and mistakes made at the political level in previous years, cause reactions to the educational community, which is distrustful of political leadership and shows the majority is reluctant to participate in processes that their outcome could be interpreted as perceived by the superior authority. There is no doubt that education has the most important contribution to the improvement of human capital from birth to university studies. The Greek Ministry of Interior is responsible for the supervision over decentralized administrations and local authorities (municipalities and regions), coordination and organization of recourse to the popular verdict (elections, referendums), legislation on Greek citizenship and expatriates, and legislation on registers, registries and demographics. So, it can be considered as the main stakeholder for Public Management issues. With a series of Legislation, the roadmap seems to be set. Recently, by the Greek Law 4692/2020, some of the basic concepts of Management are institutionalized, such as the process of planning and evaluation (internal and external) the school unit and Teachers evaluation are being defined. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0770/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

scholarly journals Put your money where your mouth is - participatory budgeting in Romanian cities

2020 ◽  
Vol 338 ◽  
pp. 303-312
Author(s):  
Nicolae Urs
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Participatory Budgeting ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
New Public ◽  
Policy Making Process ◽  
The Government

Almost 40 years ago, New Public Management theorists reserved an increasingly important role for citizens and civil society in the policy making process. This trend continued afterwards with proponents of Digital Era Governance or New Public Service theories. But without the opportunity of taking decisions on how to spend at least some parts of the government money, the influence of citizens and NGOs is fairly limited. Local governments, as the institutions closer to the needs and wishes of the communities, have gradually taken note of the increasing clamor for more power and transparency. Participatory budgeting processes have sprung up all over the world in the last years. Romania is no exception; a number of cities have implemented platforms that allow their citizens to propose and vote on projects to improve the quality of life in their communities. Our research will try to ascertain the level of success such initiatives have in Romania, a country with a generally low level of civic engagement. For this, we will use questionnaires and interviews with public servants in charge of these platforms.

scholarly journals Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Distance Education Programs in Vietnam: Rationale and Future Directions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen Huu Cuong ◽  
Le My Phong
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Distance Education ◽  
Quality Assurance ◽  
Distance Learning ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
The World ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Open And Distance Learning

Distance and online education are popular training modes in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and open education. Accreditation is one of the approaches that many countries across the world have implemented to assure the quality of higher education, including distance learning programs. This study investigates the rationale and future directions for quality assurance and accreditation of distance education programs in Vietnam. First, the paper presents concepts of distance education, and quality assurance and accreditation of distance education. Second, the research reviews experiences of implementing quality assurance and accreditation for distance education from several countries in the world. Next, the paper analyses the rationale for conducting accreditation of distance education programs in our country. Finally, the study proposes three groups of recommendations for the national quality assurance organization, accreditation agencies and higher education institutions to be able to implement the quality assurance and accreditation of distance education in Vietnam successfully. Keywords Quality assurance; Accreditation; Distance education; Online learning; Higher education References [1] UNESCO, Distance education in Asia and the Pacific: country papers, Volume III (Singapore - Vietnam), 2009. www.unesco.org/education/pdf/53-23c.pdf.[2] UNESCO, Open and distance learning: trends, policy and strategy considerations, 2002. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001284/128463e.pdf.[3] Owusu-Boampong, A. & Holmberg, C., Distance education in European higher education – the potential, UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, International Council for Open and Distance Education and Study Portals B.V, 2015.[4] Australian University, Distance learning Australia, 2018. http://www.australianuniversities.com.au/distance-learning/.[5] Darojat, O., Nilson, M. & Kaufman, D., Quality assurance in Asian open and distance learning: policies and implementation, Journal of Learning for Development, Vol. 2, No. 2 (2015) 1. [6] Jung, I. & Latchem, C., Quality assurance and accreditation in distance education and e-learning: models, policies and research, Routledge, London, 2012.[7] Wang, Qi., Quality assurance - best practices for assessing online programs, International Journal on Elearning, Vol. 5, No. 2 (2006) 265. [8] Friedman, J., 10 facts about accreditation in online degree programs, U.S.News & World Report, February 9, 2017. https://www.usnews.com.[9] U.S. Department of Education., Accrediting agencies recognized for distance education and correspondence education, 2018. https://www2.ed.gov. [10] The Australasian Council on Open, Distance and e-learning (ACODE), Benchmarks for technology enhanced learning, ACODE, Canberra, 2014.[11] Bollaert, L., NVAO’s accreditation of online education in a nutshell, 2015. https://www.nvao.net.[12] Henderikx, P. & Ubachs, G., Quality assurance and accreditation of online and distance higher education, 2017. https://www.unic.ac.cy.[13] Stella A. & Gnanam, A., Quality assurance in distance education: The challenges to be addressed, Higher Education, Vol. 47, No. 2 (2004) 143.[14] Malaysian Qualification Agency (MQA), Code of practices for open and distance learning, MQA, Kuala Lumpur, 2013.[15] COL, DEMP & UNESCO, Quality assurance toolkit for distance higher education institutions and programmes, COL, Vancouver, 2009.[16] Vietnamnet, Mở đào tạo từ xa sẽ không cần cấp phép, 2017. http://vietnamnet.vn. [17] Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), Quality assurance of online learning: discussion paper, TEQSA, Melbourne, 2017. [18] Nhân dân Điện tử, Phát triển đào tạo từ xa đúng hướng, 2017. http://www.nhandan.com.vn.[19] Nguyễn Hữu Cương, Một số kết quả đạt được của kiểm định chất lượng giáo dục đại học Việt Nam và hướng triển khai trong tương lai, Tạp chí Quản lý giáo dục, Tập 9 Số 8 (2017) 7.[20] Cục QLCL - Bộ GD-ĐT, Danh sách các CSGD đại học; các trường cao đẳng, trung cấp sư phạm, đã hoàn thành báo cáo tự đánh giá, được kiểm định, 2018 (dữ liệu cập nhật đến ngày 31/8/2018).[21] Cục QLCL - Bộ GD-ĐT, Danh sách các chương trình đào tạo được đánh giá/công nhận, 2018 (dữ liệu cập nhật đến ngày 31/8/2018).

scholarly journals Impact of the New Public Management Paradigm on the Operation of Federal Establishments in Borno State, Nigeria

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Usman D Umaru
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Service ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
New Public ◽  
The Impact

The study examined the impact of the New Public Management Paradigm on the operation of Federal establishments in Borno State, Nigeria. To achieve this objective, the collected data were analysed using Chi-square, Correlation and ANOVA. The study revealed that there is a significant improvement in the performance of the staff and the quality of service delivery in the Federal establishments under study. The study concluded that the outsourcing of services has improved the quality of service delivery. However, the policy was not being properly implemented because in some of the Federal establishments under study, the same services outsourced were being carried out by very few retained staff. They were not enough to do the job and the outsource firms given the contract, did not provide enough qualified staff to augment the short-fall. The study recommended that qualified service providers (outsourcing firms) in the relevant cadres be allowed to do the job or as an alternative, the Federal government can encourage the setting up of Independent Units in all its establishments to compete with the outsourcing firms in carrying out outsourcing services at a fee, in order to attain qualitaty service delivery.   Keywords: New Public Management, Public service, Outsourcing and Service delivery.

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