Quality Issues in ICT-based Higher Education

Rakesh Bhanot, Stephen Fallows

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2004
• eBook ISBN: 9781134310623
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Higher education institutions are becoming increasingly reliant on ICT for providing enhanced teaching and learning, and lecturers are adopting new methods of working and ways of teaching with technology all the time. However, without structure and commitment, these changes may not be bringing out the best that ICT has to offer.

Providing a wide-ranging account of the quality issues surrounding the use of ICT in higher education, this book develops useful advice and guidance on key areas including:

* devising an institution-wide strategy
* developing course materials
* providing distance and e-learning courses
* using ICT-assisted assessment
* adopting professional support processes.

With authoritative and practical contributions from leading experts in the field, this book will be a valuable addition to the shelves of all those involved in using ICT in higher education - managers, lecturers or education developers.

1

Quality in ICT-based higher education:
some introductory questions

Stephen Fallows and Rakesh Bhanot

SUMMARY

‘Quality’ is a difficult concept to define and one that is impossible to define with any degree of universal agreement. Almost every writer on the subject has used a personal favourite – this is as true of the contributors to this book as anywhere.

We do not intend to add to the definitions here, but rather will discuss a few of the key themes which emerge as writers consider quality in higher education and apply these to the specialist area of ICT-based education.

ICT-BASED EDUCATION

It is useful to review quickly what we understand by the term ICT-based education. Information and communications technologies represent the coming together of computers (information technology (IT)) with telecommunications technologies. The concept ranges from the relatively straightforward and now everyday use of computers for the production of teaching materials that will be used in a standard classroom situation to the transnational linking of learners around the planet for a shared learning experience that would have been quite impossible a generation ago.

As academics we have come to view ICT as such a basic toolkit that it is almost impossible for us to envisage how our predecessors performed their various duties of teaching, assessment and research without it. But, of course, the previous generations were taught and did learn without technology – some would even argue that the teachers were able to get on with their responsibilities with greater efficiency than their modern counterparts. Education thrived without everyone having to develop the additional proficiencies that are deemed essential in the twenty-first century.

However, most of us are not Luddites; we are willing to adapt to changing times even if not always keen to embrace every element of the new developments, but sometimes it is worthwhile to stand back and ask a few key questions:

• Can the use of ICT-based approaches enhance the quality of learning and teaching?
• Does the use of ICT-based approaches enhance the quality of learning and teaching? (Or are we using expensive equipment to achieve no more than our predecessors did with cheap and dusty chalk and talk?)
• How does the use of ICT-based approaches enhance the quality of learning and teaching?
• Are we (as teachers and learners) fully enabled to maximise the quality of the benefits that can arise from the use of ICT?

The contributors to this volume address these questions and others.

BASICS OF ‘QUALITY’

A long established principle relating to the matter of quality is ‘fitness for purpose’ – thus the peasant farmer’s hand hoe is appropriate for the task being undertaken by that farmer in exactly the same manner that the £100,000 tractor and associated set of implements is appropriate for the needs of the prairie farmer. Each farmer has a set of tools to do the job and each appreciates the quality of these tools. Giving the £100,000 tractor to the peasant farmer would not necessarily be appropriate and thus would not enhance quality.

This farming analogy transfers neatly into education. It is not simply the adoption of a new approach that enhances quality. Over the years, lecturers have progressed from use of chalk on a board to photographic slides through handwritten and typed overhead transparencies to presentation software such as PowerPoint. Effective use of each technique requires appropriate skills. The lecturer of a previous generation would be overwhelmed by the prospect of PowerPoint while today’s lecturer who prepares detailed multimedia presentations could well be challenged if the ‘props’ of twenty-first-century teaching were to be removed.

Today’s students arrive in higher education with quite different expectations and demands than was the case even just a decade ago. Students are consumers of education and as customers they expect a quality experience. These expectations are fuelled by technology and often there is unfair criticism of those who are not seen to be adopting the current technologies. Teaching must be ‘fit for the purpose’ of meeting the expectations of the twenty-first-century student, and undoubtedly for the ‘Play Station generation’ this involves the use of appropriate ICT. But we must always remember that while ICT may be used to enhance the presentation of materials, it is not always enhancing either the learning or the teaching – for instance, it is just as easy to use PowerPoint to present a poorly structured and inadequate lecture (which we would deem poor quality) as it is to use this technology to deliver a high-quality lecture with excellent structure and content.

PREOCCUPATION WITH QUALITY

Higher education in the UK gained a particular preoccupation with quality matters through the late 1980s and 1990s as institutions across the whole range of higher education sought to cope with the considerable expansion in student numbers without an accompanying expansion in physical resources and teaching staff. There has been a genuine and continuing fear that these circumstances would have an adverse impact on the quality of the educational process and the students’ learning experience. The expansion in provision occurred concurrently with a shift in the organisation of higher education with the establishment of the so-called new universities; these re-badged institutions gained, for the first time, the in-house responsibility for their awards in the same manner as the previous generations of charter universities. New senior positions were established with a quality remit.

The preoccupation with quality has been somewhat clouded by a continuing confusion about the difference between quality and standards. Students have a right to an education that is consistent in the standards achieved by the different institutions; it is a core responsibility of each examiner to evaluate the extent to which standards are maintained. In some educational settings it is relatively simple to understand the nature of standards – the extent of a person’s proficiency in a language may be measured in an objective manner while competence in the performance of a skills-based task (be it playing a musical instrument or undertaking surgery) can be similarly equated against defined standards. Standards may be less easily understood in other disciplines where objective measures are not so easily implemented (such as philosophy or even education itself).

The concept of quality is often linked with words such as ‘assurance’, ‘enhancement’ or even ‘development’. Quality assurance focuses on checking and evaluating to determine compliance with stated requirements and desired outcomes. The, more modern, terms quality enhancement or quality development are concerned with seeking to achieve something that is understood to be measurably better than that which went before. Used appropriately, ICT can enhance the quality of the students’ learning experience but, if not used with due care and attention, it can equally yield negative outcomes.

EXAMPLES OF ICT IN HIGHER EDUCATION – IS QUALITY BEING ENHANCED?

1 The electronic library

Institutions nowadays purchase the larger proportion of their journal stock in electronic format. Furthermore, substantial electronic databases allow materials to be identified almost instantaneously by use of just a few keystrokes.

But is the quality of student experience enhanced? Each student is enabled to access substantially more material than was previously the case when everything was paper-based and more limited. Does more mean better? The e-journal has clear benefits over the paper copy – several readers both on campus and remote can use a single edition simultaneously.

But does the students’ tendency to accumulate a collection of printouts that can be highlighted in a multitude of fluorescent colours develop the fundamental research skills to the same extent as old-fashioned reading and note-taking?

Does the instant access to information lead to plagiarism through the simplicity of cut and paste?

We can see that the students’ world has now shifted from a focus on the search for information to a focus on the evaluation of the quality of the mass of information that is now available to them. Quality use of the electronic library in all its manifestations is a new skill that we each have to acquire.

2 Technology improves presentation

Nowadays we have an expectation that students’ work will be presented in word-processed form. Students spend an age slowly keying in text and preparing ever more sophisticated documents. Would this time be better spent in other ways? (The same comment could be made about use of the teachers’ time.)

But is there a focus on style rather than on substance? Is the neatly word-processed document really of higher academic quality than the roughly typed or even handwritten manuscript? Is the use of PowerPoint presentation really a better (higher quality) mode of teaching than the old talk and chalk?

3 Email increases ease of feedback

We all use email to communicate with colleagues and increasingly with our students. We perceive emails as immediate messages that demand instant response. It can be appropriate for students to offer drafts of work via email or to ask questions on a range of issues, but the demands placed on us can be overwhelming.

Is email taking over our lives? The vast number of messages we all receive each day are taking over the working day (and beyond) – we all spend hours keying in our responses to often very trivial messages. Is the quality of our working lives being enhanced through this activity? Does it raise the quality of our outputs?

When our students are located at a distance then a quick and cheap means of communication is a genuine benefit. (SF has cohorts of students based in Hong Kong and Singapore and can confirm that the educational experience of these distance learners could not be truly equivalent to that of his UK-based students without use of email.) But, for on-campus students, does use of ICT bring genuine quality improvements over traditional modes of communication – is the electronic notice-board any more effective than the physical one with paper and pins?

4 ICT opens up educational opportunities

ICT is undoubtedly enhancing the options and opportunities for some learners. Distance learning harnessing the power of ICT is increasing at an exponential rate – similarly the use of distance learning techniques is a standard feature of many campus-based programmes of study. But is the shift from universal face-to-face delivery to the adoption of virtual learning environments enhancing the opportunities for all?

While ICT resources are available on campus, no institution can afford to purchase sufficient sets of equipment to ensure that all students may have unlimited access at all times. Increasingly, students feel the need to purchase their own equipment; while this may not be a problem for many, the additional financial outlay may prove impossible for others. Has quality been enhanced if students who could afford only a notebook and pen are to be excluded from the opportunities of higher education because they feel unable to afford a personal laptop and printer?

5 Is ICT only as good as the training offered?

Adoption of ICT requires training and development opportunities for both staff and students. While most of us get along with the technology through exploratory learning and perseverance, so much greater efficiency and efficacy would be achieved if the quality of training and development genuinely matched the quality of the equipment that we find on our desks. It is certainly not at all unusual for staff to be provided with thousands of pounds-worth of ICT equipment without a penny being spent on training or even basic instruction in its use. It is not deemed appropriate to develop our basic keyboard skills, and the ‘hunt and peck’ approach is widespread.

Is this a quality approach to the adoption of ICT? Proper skills development would maximise the effectiveness with which each ICT task is undertaken.

CONCLUDING COMMENT

The five examples cited above each pose challenges to institutions of higher education worldwide. We hope that the chapters which follow will give clues to solutions. There is clearly no instant solution and each of us will need to address the issues most appropriate to our requirements.

For the quality issues to be addressed, organisations will need to set in place systems to evaluate their local requirements, taking due credence of needs of all their learners and teachers. Similarly, learners and teachers will need to take personal decisions about what is appropriate action.

However, we believe that ICT may be used to raise the quality of education – but we also believe that it is not sufficient to merely purchase the equipment; it is also necessary to invest in development of the people who will use it whether these be teaching staff or students.

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Moving into uncertain terrain:
implementing online higher education

Frances Deepwell and Liz Beaty

SUMMARY

This ch...

Table of contents

• COVER PAGE
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT PAGE
• NOTES ON THE EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS
• SERIES EDITOR’S FOREWORD
• PREFACE
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• 1. QUALITY IN ICT-BASED HIGHER EDUCATION: SOME INTRODUCTORY QUESTIONS
• 2. MOVING INTO UNCERTAIN TERRAIN: IMPLEMENTING ONLINE HIGHER EDUCATION
• 3. QUALITY ASSURANCE ISSUES AND PROCESSES RELATING TO ICT-BASED LEARNING
• 4. EXTERNAL QUALITY ASSURANCE INITIATIVES: IMPACT ON ICT-BASED PROGRAMMES
• 5. BUILDING QUALITY INTO ICT-BASED DISTANCE EDUCATION
• 6. UNLOCKING KEY BARRIERS FOR STAFF ON THE PATH TO AN E-UNIVERSITY
• 7. ENSURING QUALITY IN COMPUTER-BASED ASSESSMENT
• 8. ICT AND QUALITY IN THE RESEARCH PROCESS
• 9. ICT: A MAJOR STEP FOR DISABLED STUDENTS
• 10. E-MENTORING
• 11. NETWORKED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
• 12. NETWORKED STAFF DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY
• 13. POSTGRADUATE SUPERVISOR DEVELOPMENT THROUGH ICT
• 14. CUTTING OUT COMPUTER ANXIETY: (A SCISSORS-AND-CARDBOARD APPROACH TO LEARNING ABOUT COMPUTERS)
• 15. DEALING WITH INTERNET CHEATING: COUNTERING THE ONLINE ‘PAPER MILLS’
• 16. DEVELOPING A QUALITY CAREERS EDUCATION USING ICT