Methodological proposal for the application of international benchmarking in order to assess the quality of virtual higher education

Abstract

This research focuses on providing a benchmarking methodology that allows any university offering virtual education (e-learning or b-learning) to compare itself to the best international universities in order to improve the quality of the virtual education offered. In order to verify the adequacy of the proposed methodology, it has been applied to the Polish Virtual University (PUW). On the other hand, the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) was chosen as the leading partner university. The benchmarking performed has allowed the author to obtain solid results in order to draw up and implement a complete action plan for improvement, which will make it possible to increase, in the short and medium terms, the quality of the virtual education offered by PUW. It is therefore concluded that the proposed benchmarking methodology is adequate in order to assess and improve the quality of virtual higher education.