COLLECTING DATA FOR FEEDING THE ONLINE DIMENSION OF UNIVERSITY RANKINGS: A FEASIBILITY TEST
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Published:
Dec 30, 2019
Keywords:
Teaching, Quality, Online Universities, University Rankings, Evaluation, Educational Technology, Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL)
Main Article Content
Abstract
Online universities have been always concerned about the quality of online education. However, the current rankings systems do not consider their singularities, and thus current rating criteria and indicators result in downgrading of their position in the rankings. CODUR (Creating an Online Dimension for University Rankings) is a European project that developed a set of criteria and indicators for evaluating the online dimension of university rankings. Criteria and indicators were created from a participatory research approach. A Toolbox to support data collection (and management) from the online universities to be ranked was also developed. This paper presents the testing process of this Toolbox, carried out with four international universities, located in different continents. These institutions have tested the feasibility of gathering the expected data to feed the indicators. The Toolbox test has been shown useful to forecast the availability of the data to feed the online dimension indicators.
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Articles - Dossier
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Altbach, P. G. (2016). Global perspectives on higher education. Baltimore, MD, US: John Hopkins University Press.
Bates, T. A. W., & Sangrà, A. (2011). Managing technology in higher education. Strategies for transforming teaching and learning. San Francisco, CA, US: Jossey-Bass.
Berbegal-Mirabent, J., & Ribeiro-Soriano, E. (2015). Behind league tables and ranking systems: a critical perspective of how university quality is measured. Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 25(3), 242-266. doi: 10.1108/JSTP-04-2013-0059
Bilanow, J. (2010). National university rankings and the evolution of global rankings. Warsaw, PL: Perspektywy Foundation.
Brasher, A., Holmes, W., & Whitelock, D. (2017). Comparing online distance universities. In L. Gómez-Chova, A. López-Martínez, & I. Candel-Torres (Eds.), Proceedings EDULEARN17, IATED, (pp. 5411–5415). doi: 10.21125/edulearn.2017
Bringle, R. G., & Hatcher, J. A. (1995). A service-learning curriculum for faculty. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 2, 112-22. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1805/4591
Caldwell, B., Cooper, M., Guarino Reid, L., & Vanderheiden, G. (2008). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. W3C Recommendation 11 December 2008. Retrieved from https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/
Cannell, P., Macintyre, R., & Hewitt, L. (2015). Widening access and OER: developing new pràctic. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, 17(1), 64-72. doi: 10.5456/WPLL.17.1.64
Daniel, J. (1999). Mega-universities and knowledge media. London, UK: Kogan Page.
Deming, D. J., Goldin, C., Katz, L. F., & Yuchtman, N. (2015). Can online learning bend the Higher Education cost curve?. American Economic Review, 105(5), 496-501. doi: 10.1257/aer.p20151024
Donovan, T., Bates, T., Seaman, J., Mayer, D., Martel, E., Paul, R., ... Poulin, R. (2018). Tracking online and distance education in Canadian Universities and colleges: 2018. Toronto, ON, CA: Canadian Digital Learning Research Association. Retrieved from https://eduq.info/xmlui/handle/11515/37136
Elassy, N. (2015). The concepts of quality, quality assurance and quality enhancement. Quality Assurance in Education, 23(3), 250-261. doi: 10.1108/QAE-11-2012-0046
Giardina, F., Guitert, M., & Sangrà, A. (2017). The State of the Art of Online Education. Report. CODUR Deliverable IO1.A1. Retrieved from: http://edulab.uoc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/CODUR-deliverable-IO1.A1_Stat-of-the-Art.pdf
Hazelkorn, E. (2008). Learning to live with league tables and ranking: the experience of institutional leaders. Higher Education Policy, 21(2), 193-215. doi: 10.1057/hep.2008.1
High Level Group on the Modernisation of Higher Education (2013). Improving the quality of teaching and learning in Europe’s higher education institutions. Luxembourg, LU: Publications Office of the European Union.
High Level Group on the Modernisation of Higher Education (2014). New models of teaching and learning in higher education. Luxembourg, LU: Publications Office of the European Union.
Locke, W. (2011). The institutionalization of rankings: Managing status anxiety in an increasingly marketized environment. In J. C. Shin, R. K. Toutkoushian, & U. Teichler (Eds.), University rankings. Theoretical basis, methodology and impacts on global higher education (pp. 201-228). Dordrecht, NL: Springer.
Macfadyen, L. P., Dawson, S., Pardo, A., & Gaševic, D. (2014). Embracing Big Data in complex educational systems: The learning analytics imperative and the policy challenge. Research & Practice in Assessment, 9, 17-28. Retrieved from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/157942/
McKnight, K., O'Malley, K., Ruzic, R., Horsley, M. K., Franey, J. J., & Bassett, K. (2016). Teaching in a digital age: How educators use technology to improve student learning. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 48(3), 194-211. doi: 10.1080/15391523.2016.1175856
Norton, A., Cherastidtham, I., & Mackey, W. (2018). Mapping Australian Higher Education 2018. Carlton, AU: Grattan Institute. Retrieved from https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/907-Mapping-Australian-higher-education-2018.pdf
Pozzi, F., Manganello, F., Passarelli, M., Persico, D., Brasher, A., Holmes, W., ... Sangrà, A. (in press). Ranking meets distance education: defining relevant criteria and indicators for online universities. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning.
Pucciarelli, F., & Kaplan, A. (2016). Competition and strategy in higher education: Managing complexity and uncertainty. Business Horizons, 59, 311-320. doi: 10.1016/j.bushor.2016.01.003
Seaman, J.E.; Allen, I.E. & Seaman, J. (2018). Grade increase: Tracking distance education in the United States. Babson Park, MA, US: Babson Survey Research Group.
Scheerens, J. (1990). School effectiveness research and the development of process indicators of school functioning. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 1(1), 61-80. doi: 10.1080/0924345900010106
Siemens, G., Gašević, D. & Dawson, S. (2015). Preparing for the Digital University: A review of the history and current state of distance, blended, and online learning. Arlington, AU: Link Research Lab. Retrieved March 2, 2019 from http://linkresearchlab.org/PreparingDigitalUniversity.pdf
Song, J. (2018). Creating world-class universities in China: strategies and impacts at a renowned research university. Higher Education, 75(4), 729-742. doi: 10.1007/s10734-017-0167-4
Straumsheim, C. (2014). Online ed skepticism and self-sufficiency: survey of faculty views on technology. Inside Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/survey/online-ed-skepticism-and-self-sufficiencysurvey-faculty-views-technology
Van Vught, F., & Ziegele, F. (2011). U-Multirank: Design and testing the feasibility of a multidimensional global university ranking: A final report. Brussels, BE: Consortium for Higher Education and Research Performance Assessment. Retrieved from https://ris.utwente.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/5145063/Vught11umulti.pdf