Virtual modules to support specific Master's programmes in healthcare

- Quality assurance and evaluation -

As part of the joint project, the diz and the "Forschungswerkstatt Schule & LehrerInnenbildung" are responsible for quality assurance and evaluation. More than in almost any other sector of the education system, there is an intensive debate about quality criteria and evaluation approaches in the e-learning sector, which has resulted in standardisation at European and international level. However, existing criteria catalogues and evaluation approaches for e-learning courses cannot simply be adopted, as criteria only provide information about the quality features of a learning programme that were included in its development.

This results in the following tasks and requirements for counselling with regard to quality assurance in the Elan III project:

• Identification of the objectives, characteristics of the instructional design and indicators of success relevant to the programme to be developed in consultation with the module developers;
• Development of quality criteria and evaluation approaches tailored to the programme, including the adaptation of existing criteria catalogues and evaluation instruments;
• Provision and use of corresponding criteria catalogues and instruments as well as final evaluation of the developed programme on this basis.
  

Consultancy on quality assurance and evaluation includes aspects such as information and media design, instructional design and didactic methods. The "fitting principle", which is decisive for quality assurance, means that all steps in the development of quality assurance procedures can only be carried out in close consultation with the module developers.

The expertise of external consultants (apl. Prof. W. Fichten, Dr J. Winkel), who perform this task against the background of their own experience with e-learning and didactic-methodological knowledge, was called upon for advice. When providing advice on the programme components and modules to be developed, reference is not only made to media technology aspects, but also to learning theory and didactic-methodological aspects. It is assumed that a quality evaluation of learning programmes must reflect and incorporate the prevailing instructional design approaches and the theoretical assumptions about learning and the conditions that promote learning on which these approaches are based. Link