Brussels | 10. May 2009

Report on state of Progress

(by Ulf Ehlers, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 10-5-09)


Mission

The Working Group “Quality for global (E-)Learning” focuses on involving partners from Europe and beyond to synthesize the European and global quality debate, experiences and tools in such a way that they become mature as best practice to form the basis of a global quality dialogue. It ultimately aims at involving developing countries into a dialogue in order to improve educational opportunities and raise capacity.

It serves as the interface which connects the European Foundation for Quality in E-Learning with developing countries and the broader international landscape of quality related actors and contexts. The debates, discussion and outcomes of EFQUEL are taken up and valorised in order to promote them in those international contexts in which a synergy through mutual cooperation can be gained. To this end it aims at setting up partnerships (formally and informally) with NGOs and GOs in a global educational context in order to promote existing and stimulate new projects and initiatives to improve educational delivery with a special focus on the use of Knowledge, information and learning technologies. The Working Group works out the role of quality as a broad concept for education, which connects questions of access to education for all, quality for life, participation and education as basis for sustainable growths of society and individuals.

Today it can be seen that a lot of initiatives in the targeted field produce reasonable results but are not sufficiently transferred to be valuable in global and development contexts. The aim of the SIG is to act as a facilitator to enable educational professionals to benefit from global good practices and to show the use of European developments for development cooperation and vice versa.


Workplan (history and upcoming)

Past

1. Definition of scope, mission and working mode of SIG (NOV 29th, 2005)
2. Development positioning paper, showing the relation between European initiatives in the field and global initiatives and needs (JAN 2006)
3. Conference Participation and presentation of EFQUEL: Quality Assurance and Accreditation for African Higher Education, UNESCO Conference in Nairobi, Kenya (FEBR 2006)
4. Development of project initiative and submission of project “African European Research Observatory” (AERO) to the European Commission  not successful (APRIL 2006)
5. Development of a project initiative and submission of successful project “WINDS-LA” to the European Commission. (APRIL 2006)
6. Cooperation with UNESCO Division for Higher Education: Pre-Conference Workshop: Quality for eLearning in Africa in the Conference “E-Learning in Africa”, Ethiopia, May 2006
7. 4-weeks virtual discussion with stakeholders from Africa and Europe about feasibility to set up an African-European network for “Quality for E-Learning in Africa” (JULY 2006)
8. Workshop oin E-learning for sustainable development at the iLearnForum, Paris (JAN 2007)
9. “WINDS-LA” project started in FEBR 2007 with a view to involve Latin American Partners into a dialogue on ICT research
10. White Paper: Quality for E-Learning on the Global Cooperation Agenda (MAY 2007)
11. Science-Connect Platform launched in Fall 2007 as a networking portal for African researchers and science based actors from Europe and beyond in order to form a new partnership of academia from both regions.
12. Relaunch of AERO proposal in 2008, in order to develop a Quality Certification for E-Learning in higher education Institutions in Africa (rejected in 2008)

Current, Ongoing

1. Launch of the Open ECBCheck Project, involving international Capacity Building Organisations into establishing a global capacity building platform for better quality of e-learning capacity building (more information on http://www.efquel.org/openecbcheck/ )

•   Fabio Nasciembeni, MENON, Belgium
•   Leopold Reiff, Hoffmann&Reif Consulting, Berlin, Germany
•   Ulf Ehlers, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
•   Virginie Aimard, Learning Visions, Germany
•   Mark Kramer, University of Salzburg: ICT&S Center for Advanced Studies and Research
•   Yuri Rubin, Council for Quality Assurance in Higher, Russia
•   Elena Gevorkyan, Federal Service on Supervision in Education and Science, Russia
•   Nicholas Balacheff, France
•   Tim Unwin, Royal Holloway College, UK
•   Mark Kalinin, AQA, Russia
•   Frederic Morand, ECO Innovation, Brussels