Quality Assurance in Distance Education and E-Learning

The endeavour towards developing QA systems through various stages of testing and development is in response to the growing public concern for the quality of DE as well as staff aspirations for quality. This book, through the selection of cases from the aforementioned institutions, covers a wide range of QA systems and perspectives of quality in DE. These cases present good practices in QA for DE/e-learning, analyse challenges in assuring the quality of DE products and services, offer possible solutions to meet those challenges, and present lessons for other DE providers.

Insung Jung is currently Professor of Education at the International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo, Japan. Before joining ICU in 2003, she served as the Director of the Multimedia Education Center at the Ewha Women’s University, Seoul and was on the faculty of the Korea National Open University. She has also served as a consultant and technical advisor Seoul distance learning to numerous national and international institutions, including UNESCO’s Open and Distance Learning Initiative for Higher Education Knowledge Base, the APEC ICT Human Capacity-Building and Facilitation of Human Resources Exchange, and the Advisory Committee of World Bank’s GDLN project in Korea. Her recent publications include Distance and Blended Learning in Asia and Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Distance Education and e-Learning.

Tat Meng Wong was formerly a Professor of Wawasan Open University (WOU), and also the former Vice Chancellor and CEO of WOU Penang. He also served as the President of Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) from January 2011 to September 2012. He graduated with a PhD in Zoology from Otago University in New Zealand in 1972 and has more than 40 years experience in conventional and ODL institutions, having held senior positions in Universiti Sains Malaysia (1972–1993), Open University of Hong Kong (1993–2006), and WOU (from 2006–September 2012). His current interests include QA in ODL systems and change management.

Tian Belawati is Professor and currently Rector of Universitas Terbuka (Indonesia Open University). She has been working in the field of distance education since 1985 and has presented many papers at national and international conferences, and has published numerous books and academic journals. She has served as Secretary General (2008–2009) and President (2009–2010) of the Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) and is President of the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE). She has also been actively involved in research on the use of ICT for education in Asia with the PANdora Network, on which she now serves as a Board Member.