Concept Note
The Consultative Expert Meeting “Improving the Performance of Open Universities: Towards the Development of Benchmarking Framework” to be organized within the joint project of the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education and Shanghai Open University “Promoting ICT Capacity Building and Open Education in the Era of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technologies”. The project is aimed to support opening up of education to a wide audience of potential students and to develop teacher capacities in using digital technologies and content for formal education and lifelong learning, including digital citizenship education.
Background
The concept of openness is underlaid by the perception that knowledge is a common good which should be accessible as openly as possible. Technological development, in particular the rise of digital technologies, facilitated the emergence and proliferation of the concept of openness and its institutional, organisational and practical manifestations.
In the context of higher education, the openness movement is reflected in the ideas of open access to educational materials, courses, programmes and approaches – Open Educational Resources (OER), Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), Open Educational Practices (OEPs), etc. Being one of the pillars of open education movement, OUs implement the concept of openness in higher education through various dimensions, e.g., open access to educational content, open enrolment and inclusive admission, open credentialing, innovation and collaboration.
There are about 70 Open Universities worldwide, though this number may vary based on the criteria applied to define open universities. Overall, OUs represent an extremely broad range of institutions which serve to meet diverse objectives depending on their historical, social, economic and political contexts. The vast majority of Open Universities are based in Asia and the Pacific, there are also OUs in Europe and North America, Africa, Arab States, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Ensuring the quality of education is of particular importance both for traditional and open universities. To address this challenge, educational institutions tend to adopt various approaches and practices, including benchmarking methodology. Benchmarking may contribute to improving the performance of universities through internal evaluation and self-assessment of their fundamental and/or support processes to be compatible with a set of international standards. Benchmarking tools have been applied for traditional higher education institutions, technology-enhanced modes of education and e-learning; however, benchmarking framework tailored to the needs of Open Universities is still to be elaborated.
Organisers
- UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education
- Shanghai Open University
Objectives
The Consultative Meeting is intended to bring together Open Universities and benchmarking experts representing different countries and regions to discuss approaches and dimensions for benchmarking applicable to OUs and aimed to contribute to improving the quality of open higher education and the performance of Open Universities.
Tentative Agenda
The overview of the joint UNESCO IITE – SOU project and its intermediate outputs, as well as lessons-learnt from benchmarking exercises in higher education will be presented during the first part of the Consultative Meeting. The second part will be organised as a panel discussion – the experts are invited to elaborate on the following topics:
- Quality of education as applied to open universities: OU-specific dimensions for benchmarking
- Qualitative and quantitative data to improve quality of education: relevant indicators
- Policy and strategic management of OUs
- Curriculum: aligning national and international standards and socio-economic demands
- Pedagogy, instructional design and educational content
- Innovation and technologies and their impact on the quality of education
- Human resource management for quality assurance: qualification requirements, professional development, faculty load and staff effectiveness
- Learners’ motivation, engagement and retention
- External collaboration with prospective students and graduates, employers and universities
- Funding types and business model
The Meeting will be held online via Zoom. To participate in the meeting, please register here: https://unesco-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwpce6trDssGtO7HE9aqkzP8m-yxm01ozmJ
Date and time: the 13th of April, 2022 at 11:00 UTC+2 (Paris).