Quality Assessment of E-Facilitators

Organizations, in particular HR/Training departments, strive to set forth good practices, quality assurance, and improvement on a continuing basis. With the continuous growth of online university programs, it is crucial for e-learning establishments to include service quality assessments along with mechanisms to help e-facilitators consistently maintain the highest quality standard when lecturing, teaching, guiding, administering, and supporting the online learner. This chapter discusses the application of an e-quality assessment matrix (e-QAM) as part of a quality assessment model that promotes continuous improvement of the e-learning environment. This model will serve as a tool for online universities and organizations to achieve a base standard of consistent quality that is essential for program accreditation and satisfaction of global customers.

Philosophical and Epistemological Basis for Building a Quality Online Training Methodology

This chapter outlines the problem of laying the groundwork for building a suitable online training methodology. In the first place, it points out that most e-learning initiatives are developed without a defined method or an appropriate strategy. It then critically analyzes the role of the constructivist model in relation to this problem, affirming that this explanatory framework is not a method and describing the problems to which this confusion gives rise. Finally, it proposes a theoretical and epistemological framework of reference for building this methodology based on Greek paideía. The authors propose that the search for a reference model such as the one developed in ancient Greece will allow us to develop a method based on the importance of a teaching profile “different” from traditional academic roles and which we call “tutor.” It has many similarities to the figures in charge of monitoring learning both in Homeric epic and Classical Greece.

E-QUAL

This chapter presents a method to measure the quality of e-learning courses. An introduction is first presented on the problematics of quality in e-learning emphasizing the importance of considering the learners’ needs in all the development and implementation stages. Next several projects are mentioned, which are related to quality in e-learning, and some of the most important existing models are described. Finally, a new proposal is presented, the e-Qual model, which is structured into four areas: learning contents, learning contexts, processes, and results. With this chapter, the authors aim, not only to draw the attention to this complicated issue but above all to contribute to a higher credibility of e-learning proposing a new model that stands out for its simplicity and flexibility for analyzing different pedagogical models.

Formative Online Assessment in E-Learning

This chapter provides an introduction to formative assessment, especially applied within an online or e-learning environment. The characteristics of four strategies of online formative assessment currently most widely used—online adaptive assessment, online self-assessment, online collaborative assessment, and portfolio—are described. References are made throughout recent research about the effectiveness of online formative assessment for optimizing students’ learning. A case study in which a computer-assisted assessment tool was used to design and apply self-assessment exercises is presented. The chapter emphasizes the idea that all type of assessment needs to be conceptualized as “assessment for learning.” Practical advices are detailed for the planning, development, implementation, and review of quality formative online assessment.

Telematic Environments and Competition-Based Methodologies

This chapter provides an overview of technology-based competitive active learning. It discusses competitive and collaborative learning and analyzes how adequate the different strategies are for different individual learning styles. First of all, some classifications of learning styles are reviewed. Then, the chapter discusses competitive and collaborative strategies as active learning methodologies and analyzes their effects on students’ outcomes and feelings, according to their learning styles. Next, it shows how networking technology can mitigate the possible negative aspects. All the discussion is supported by significant study cases from the literature. Finally, an innovative system for active competitive and collaborative learning is presented as an example of a telematic versatile learning system.

E-Mentoring

This chapter integrates existing literature and developments on electronic mentoring to build a constructive view of this modality of mentoring as a qualitatively different concept from its traditional face-to-face version. The concept of e-mentoring is introduced by looking first into the evasive notion of mentoring. Next, some salient e-mentoring experiences are identified. The chapter goes on to note the differences between electronic and face-to-face mentoring, and how the relationship between mentor and mentee is modified by technology in unique and definitive ways. Readers are also presented with a collection of best practices on design, implementation, and evaluation of e-mentoring programs. Finally, some practice and research trends are proposed. In conclusion, the author draws an elemental distinction between both modalities of mentoring, which defines e-mentoring as more than the defective alternative to face-to-face contact.

A Heideggerian View on E-Learning

This chapter introduces some ideas of the German philosopher Martin Heidegger and how they can be applied to e-learning design. It argues that heideggerian thinking (in particular the interpretation done by Hubert Dreyfus) can inspire innovations in e-learning design and implementation by putting practice at the center of knowledge creation, which in the case of professional and corporate education are real work situations. It also points out the limits of distance learning imposed by the nature of human beings. Furthermore, the author hope that Heidegger ideas will not only inform researchers of a better design for e-learning projects, but also illuminate practitioners on how to design e-learning courses aimed at bridging the gap between “knowing” and “doing.”

RAPAD

This chapter introduces RAPAD, a reflective and participatory methodology for e-learning and lifelong learning. It argues that by engaging in a reflective and participatory design process for a personalized e-learning environment, individual students can attain a conceptual change in understanding the learning and e-learning process, especially their own. Students use a framework provided by the concept of a personal cognitive or learning profile and the design and development of a personalized e-learning environment (PELE) to engage with key aspects of their learning. This results in Flexible Student Alignment, a process by which students are better able to match their learning and e-learning characteristics and requirements to the practices, resources, and structures of universities in the emerging knowledge society. The use of Web-based technologies and personal reflection ensure that RAPAD is well-placed to be an adaptive methodology which continues to enhance the process of lifelong learning.

E-Learning Value and Student Experiences

This chapter focuses on understanding how the value of student learning and the student learning experience could be improved given pertinent environmental and academic constraints of an e-learning case. Believing that a better understanding of student behaviour might help course design, the chapter revisits the outcomes of two studies of e-learning and analyses them further using a framework which conceptualises the value of e-learning from a stakeholder perspective. The main objective of the chapter is to identify some of the important issues and trends related to the perceived e-learning value. The analysis of the emerging and future trends indicates that in the future blending of e-learning and face-toface learning is likely to occur not only along the pedagogical, but also along the technological and the organizational dimensions of e-learning. Therefore, new blended learning and teaching models should emphasise further the alignment of learning with work/life balance.

Designing an Online Assessment in E-Learning

In this chapter we carry out analysis of the term “assessment,” applied over all the elements which constitute the environment of formation (evaluation), and also particularizing in the assessment of the learning process, developed in the frame of what we call e-learning. The perspective guiding text is of a methodological and pedagogical nature. We try to plan the assessment process in online formation environments dealing in depth with the different elements which constitute it: objectives and functions of assessment, assessment criteria and indicators, people involved and assessment agents, software instruments and tools for the collection of data, and analysis of the information and reports. We raise a discussion about institutional strategies for the incorporation of this e-assessment methodology in higher educational institutions and come to the final conclusions about the validity and appropriateness of the e-learning assessment processes.