The challenge of quality in peer-produced eLearning content

Abstract

Peer production and user-created content is becoming an important element in modern eLearning, supported by the development of the Internet from a one-way information distribution channel to a two-way communication channel. In the peer production of eLearning content, the essential feature is that the learners are also acting as creators of the content and that the separation between an author and a consumer is blurring. In practice, learners are no longer purely consumers but they actively participate in the learning process and thus influence it. This fundamental feature is also imposing a different view on quality. Peer production is not only a novel method to produce eLearning content, but it is also an approach to empower a wide variety of professionals to the learning content production. However, the quality management challenge related to this kind of content can undermine the merits of the method. A number of useful tools and approaches are currently being applied to ensure and improve the quality of peer produced eLearning content. This article introduces QualityScape, a method developed by the European QMPP project, as an important approach in assuring the quality of peer-produced eLearning content. The fundamental finding in our work is that quality is the result of the interplay between peer production of digital content and peer validation processes of digital content. Overall, the key issue in this project is to develop a holistic approach to the peer production, which enables the effective utilization of this unique method of content creation.