Document Type : Original Article
Author
Ph.D. in Virtual Education, Assistant Professor, Department of Education, School of Education and Psychology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
Abstract
Background and Objective: Due to the remarkable advantages of virtual education, the increasing development of online education institutions has been approved by education and training authorities all around the world. In spite of their remarkable growth, online education institutions are facing significant challenges such as lack of trust from the society. These challenges are mainly associated with the uncertainties regarding the quality of online teaching and learning. Therefore, it seems essential to pay especial attention to the concept of quality in virtual learning institutions and its measurement for which a comprehensive framework of quality criteria and indicators is required. The main purpose of this study was to extract the indicators and attributes of quality evaluation in virtual education from the existing literature to facilitate the development of a holistic quality evaluation framework for online learning in higher education.
Methods: In this qualitative research, meta-synthesis method based on the Walsh and Downe approach was employed. The research method comprises of 6 steps (including goal definition, systematic search for related papers, evaluation of documents, extracting related content, content analyses, and interpretation of findings). From the total number of 438 potentially related academic documents, 41 were selected and analyzed.
Results: Through the six step method, 12 quality indicators of online education have been extracted in 4 aspects which include 47 attributes. The extracted indicators for quality evaluation, considering the variety of approaches presented in the literature, provide a comprehensive framework in which the target population, such as online learners, instructors, and employers, has been considered.
Conclusion: The main indicators for evaluating the quality of virtual education comprised of students, instructors, courseware/content, learning management system, unit/course structure, technological infrastructure, teaching, learning, support services, professional development programs, evaluation and assessment, and graduates. In the developed quality evaluation framework, the measurement attributes of each indicator have been extracted from the literature.
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