‘Quality management and assurance’ (QA) is the process of ensuring that systems, establishments, practices and resources are ‘fit for purpose’. Each educational sector and each subject could have its own purposes and fitness criteria. Education is a holistic process and its components are interdependent, so that ICT-integrated pedagogy (or e-Learning) can not be quality-assured in isolation. Together these factors result in a complicated range of scenarios. Maintaining current educational standards requires that most current QA outcome based criteria will carry over into e-Learning practice.

Rather than recommend precise policies, the Policy Brief aims to draw attention to some of the new ICT-linked issues involved that require additional QA criteria. One of the most important issues is the impact on the professional development of teachers and lecturers. Another is the potential of ICT to enhance education, requiring flexibility to avoid suppressing innovation through the application of over-rigid criteria.