At its annual innovation forum, this year held at Espoo Finland, EFQUEL approved a number of priorities for work over the next year. Together with the participants of the forum, EFQUEL made the following commitments for its work in the next year, in a number of areas in line with its mission statement. It is EFQUEL’s aim to support each of these priorities through a specific multi-national project, involving leading actors in the field from throughout Europe and beyond.

Enabling Dialogue amongst Stakeholders

Since its foundation, EFQUEL has promoted policy innovation through a process of dialogue amongst those with a stake in process and outputs of education and policymakers. In extension of this role, as the world’s largest association in the field of e-learning quality, we will take an active role in initiating and leading the European debate around e-learning.

EFQUEL will:

• Show leadership and vision in the field of quality of e-learning, while fostering a culture of sharing and dialogue

• Promote change in education through engagement with all relevant stakeholders, thus allowing for true reflection, by supporting this process in its daily activities and events.
• Work with a multitude of stakeholders to truly make universities a place for Lifelong Learning.

Developing new Quality Approaches for emerging Learning approaches

As learning pedagogies and technologies constantly evolve at an ever-increasing rate, quality approaches need to be adapted or sometimes reconceived to support them. In past years, EFQUEL has addressed such lacunae in the areas of Technology use in Higher Education (UNIQUe) and in Adult Learning Centres (ALCs, QUALC). In the coming year, EFQUEL will extend these successful experiences to the field of Open Educational Resources (OPAL, CONCEDE).  

EFQUEL will:

• Promote the use of OER through the identification of suitable methods for quality development for OER

• Increasing usage in OER by creating mechanisms which improve the trust in OER within and outside of education

Linking Quality and Innovation

Through its experience of developing quality approaches in cutting edge areas of education policy and practice, EFQUEL has seen a need to define quality also in terms of innovation, thus ensuring that our education systems remain relevant to society into the future.

EFQUEL will:

• Explore the  innovation dimension within QA frameworks for HE, and develop methodologies to support it at European and National level

• Require and reward innovation in Higher Education, through the choice of appropriate indicators and incentives

Promoting Student-Centered Learning and Flexible Learning Pathways

It is a principle of EFQUEL that learners are a key resource in any educational system. It is only by meeting the needs of each individual learner, and involving them in the educational process that our systems can meet the full demands placed on them by a society which itself continues to grow more diverse. In this spirit,

EFQUEL will:

• Demonstrate ways that ICT can enhance learning by putting and keeping learners and communities at the centre of the quality or learning landscapes

As a member of the education community EFQUEL will contribute to:

• Put learners at the centre of the educational system as co-creators of their learning environments and involved in a multi-stakeholders governance model