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From beginning of November 2011 until end of March 2011, I was responsible on behalf of the European Foundation for Quality in E-Learning, to work on the following Tempus project, aiming the modernisation of higher education in EU neighbourhood countries:

DL@WeB

The DL@Web project is enhancing the quality of distance learning at Western Balkan Higher Education Institutions. As a first step in this project, current quality models for distance learning have been reviewed and compared against each other. In particular the leading European organisations in this field e.g. ENQA, EADTU, EADL, EDEN, EFQUEL and national benchmarks such as JISC, HSV, CACE, DETC, ODL QC, NADE, QAA, ACODE  and NVAO have been analysed about their approach and their quality models.

In a later stage, a compliant quality framework for Distance Learning in the Western Balkan states shall be generated in compliance to European guidelines and standards. After testing the framework in some piloting universities, the objective is to generate training materials and to conduct national workshops in all of the countries involved.

My activities:

• Reviewing and contributing to the document "Analysis of Existing Practices for Quality Assurance in Distance Learning
• Participating in project meetings
• Conducting administrative activities

There is a strong potential in such a project in particular that Europe gets aware about a common approach for innovative quality assurance in Higher Education. ENQA has developed a guideline, but I see a need for an agreed quality framework targeting the innovation driven change process in traditional universities. It might be that a quality assurance framework for distance learning universities can bring important benefits into the debates on traditional quality assurance for universities.

One of the few independent people, who are able to oversee the current developments, is Anne-Marie De Jonghe. She has recently wrote a position paper for EFQUEL about the "Readiness of traditional universities for quality and innovation".

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From beginning of November 2009 until end of March 2011, I was responsible on behalf of the European Foundation for Quality in E-Learning, to work on the following KA4 projects, promoting the creation of a framework for the effective exploitation of the results of the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP):

SEVAQ+

In a previous project called SEVAQ (2005-2007), an online tool and an approach for self-evaluation has been developed for the Vocational Education & Training (VET) sector. The European Commission has agreed to fund a follow-up project (SEVAQ+) with the objective to disseminate and exploitate the results not only in the VET sector but as well in Higher Education (HE). Read more on the SEVAQ+ project on the website: http://www.sevaq.eu/index.php?title=01_-_THE_SEVAQ%2b_project

I find this project very fascinating since it is combining two approaches to evaluate the output of a training or course: Kirkpatrick and EFQM. This is in particular useful to distinguish the different influence which are affecting the result of a learning activity in an organisation.

The SEVAQ+ team has further developed the initial online tool - now, a user has the possibility to subscribe with different roles (course designer, manager or learner). A course designer can select out of more than 700 questions the crucial ones for his purpose. An electronical guidance is helping during this process. Afterwards, a participant can rate the sub-criteria, the importance of the sub-criteria and give a comment.

My activities:

• Coordinating EFQUEL's activities in the project
• Chairing the internal Quality Assurance Committee (consisting of the workpackage leaders)
• Developing and conducting dissemination activities (creation of online badges, press releases etc.)
• Organising and holding workshops and seminars 
• Coordinating and contributing to the long- and short-listing process of the Delphi expert group
• Creating Rapid eLearning applications for the Delphi expert group

It might be possible that the SEVAQ+ tool could be once integrated in the EFQM toolbox. In general, I could imagine that such tools like SEVAQ+ will be most probably more in common in the future. There is a strong potential for international online-based benchmarking.

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From beginning of October 2010 until end of March 2011, I was responsible on behalf of the European Foundation for Quality in E-Learning, to work on the following Leonardo da Vinci projects, targeting educational activities in the Vocational Education & Training sector:

EQAVET

Grants have been awarded to a consortium consisting of MENON (coordinator), SCIENTER, EVTA and EFQUEL to support national projects for the development of a national approach to improve the quality assurance of Vocational Education & Training systems by promoting and developing the use of the European Quality Assurance Reference Framework in Vocational Education and Training.

The project EQAVET should not be misunderstood as the organisation EQAVET (http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc1134_en.htm), which was set up in 2010 to align the different approaches including Europass, the European principles for the identification and validation of non-formal and informal learning, ECVET and the European Qualification Framework for lifelong learning (EQF).

Sophie Weisswange, responsible on behalf of the European Commission for the project activities has explained the project with this presentation:

My activities:

• Review of the application / proposal
• Administrative tasks for the tender
• Participation in the set-up meeting

Personally, I see a very strong potential in this project to finally suceed in mainstreaming a common European framework for Quality Assurance including the support of its implementation on the national levels.

The demand has been emphasized on the two most important European policy institituations: The European Council and the European Parliament.