Design of a specific quality assessment model for distance education

Abstract

Improving the quality of education systems is one of the major challenges of the 21st century. In many cases, this can be put down to the specific demands of accreditation regulations placed on higher education institutions and degree courses, and to the process of continuing improvement to meet the educational needs of a society whose expectations have changed considerably in recent decades. Assessment is carried out to identify problems or unattained objectives and to suggest improvements.An assessment of a distance education institution should consider factors ranging from student achievement to the comprehensiveness of the teaching proposal within a particular context. Virtualisation applies not only to students, but also to every university function.The aim of this article is to present the advances in the design of a quality assessment model that allows the Department of Distance Education in the Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Hídricas (FICH) at the Universidad Nacional del Litoral (UNL), Argentina, to assess educational quality so that it can implement a process of continuing improvement on the degree courses that it offers.