Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Distance Education Programs in Vietnam: Rationale and Future Directions
Main Article Content
Abstract
Distance and online education are popular training modes in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and open education. Accreditation is one of the approaches that many countries across the world have implemented to assure the quality of higher education, including distance learning programs. This study investigates the rationale and future directions for quality assurance and accreditation of distance education programs in Vietnam. First, the paper presents concepts of distance education, and quality assurance and accreditation of distance education. Second, the research reviews experiences of implementing quality assurance and accreditation for distance education from several countries in the world. Next, the paper analyses the rationale for conducting accreditation of distance education programs in our country. Finally, the study proposes three groups of recommendations for the national quality assurance organization, accreditation agencies and higher education institutions to be able to implement the quality assurance and accreditation of distance education in Vietnam successfully.
References
[2] UNESCO, Open and distance learning: trends, policy and strategy considerations, 2002. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001284/128463e.pdf.
[3] Owusu-Boampong, A. & Holmberg, C., Distance education in European higher education – the potential, UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, International Council for Open and Distance Education and Study Portals B.V, 2015.
[4] Australian University, Distance learning Australia, 2018.http://www.australianuniversities.com.au/distance-learning/.
[5] O. Darojat, M. Nilson, D. Kaufman, Quality assurance in Asian open and distance learning: policies and implementation, Journal of Learning for Development. Vol. 2, No. 2 (2015) 1.
[6] I. Jung, C. Latchem, Quality assurance and accreditation in distance education and e-learning: models, policies and research, Routledge, London, 2012.
[7] Wang, Qi., Quality assurance - best practices for assessing online programs, International Journal on Elearning. Vol. 5, No. 2 (2006) 265.
[8] J. Friedman, 10 facts about accreditation in online degree programs, U.S.News & World Report, February 9, 2017. https://www.usnews.com.
[9] U.S. Department of Education., Accrediting agencies recognized for distance education and correspondence education, 2018. https://www2.ed.gov.
[10] The Australasian Council on Open, Distance and e-learning (ACODE), Benchmarks for technology enhanced learning, ACODE, Canberra, 2014.
[11] L. Bollaert, NVAO’s accreditation of online education in a nutshell, https://www.nvao.net, 2015.
[12] P. Henderikx, G. Ubachs, Quality assurance and accreditation of online and distance higher education, https://www.unic.ac.cy, 2017.
[13] A. Stella, A. Gnanam, Quality assurance in distance education: The challenges to be addressed, Higher Education. Vol. 47, No. 2 (2004) 143.
[14] Malaysian Qualification Agency (MQA), Code of practices for open and distance learning, MQA, Kuala Lumpur, 2013.
[15] COL, DEMP & UNESCO, Quality assurance toolkit for distance higher education institutions and programmes, COL, Vancouver, 2009.
[16] Vietnamnet, Mở đào tạo từ xa sẽ không cần cấp phép, http://vietnamnet.vn, 2017.
[17] Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), Quality assurance of online learning: discussion paper, TEQSA, Melbourne, 2017.
[18] Nhân dân Điện tử, Phát triển đào tạo từ xa đúng hướng, http://www.nhandan.com.vn, 2017.
[19] Nguyễn Hữu Cương, Một số kết quả đạt được của kiểm định chất lượng giáo dục đại học Việt Nam và hướng triển khai trong tương lai, Tạp chí Quản lý Giáo dục. Tập 9 Số 8 (2017) 7.
[20] Cục Quản lý Chất lượng - Bộ Giáo dục và Đào tạo, Danh sách các cơ sở giáo dục đại học; các trường cao đẳng, trung cấp sư phạm, đã hoàn thành báo cáo tự đánh giá, được kiểm định, 2018 (dữ liệu cập nhật đến ngày 31/8/2018).
[21] Cục Quản lý Chất lượng - Bộ Giáo dục và Đào tạo, Danh sách các chương trình đào tạo được đánh giá/công nhận, 2018 (dữ liệu cập nhật đến ngày 31/8/2018).