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QAOK
Topics
Academic Leadership / Institutional Governance And Management
Regular review to ensure alignment with institutional directions
An academic leader regularly reviews the operational plan of his/her unit and monitors performance outcomes within the framework of the institutional quality assurance policies. Regular review encourages continuous improvement of quality management processes and ensures ongoing alignment with the institutional strategic plan.
Purpose
The purpose of this practice is to maintain quality education provision of an academic unit and its alignment with institutional goals. The quality assurance policies and processes help ensure the high standards of programme delivery and facilitate further enhancement. The regular reviews also provide the academic leader with an opportunity to identify problems with alignment of activity at an early stage and adjust the plans or implement corrective actions if necessary..
Outcome
The outcome of employing this practice is achieving continuous improvement by way of reviewing performance outcomes and the effective implementation of the operational plan which contributes towards the achievement of institutional goals.
28 Feb 2017
Institutional Governance And Management
Common strategic goal to assure partnership commitment
The non-local operator and the local partner (Partnership) of transnational education programmes share common strategic directions in the provision of transnational education.
Purpose
The purpose of this practice is to foster long-term collaboration including commitment to resources. Both parties have, at the outset of their partnership, established a consensus on the respective roles and responsibilities within the Partnership, such as in regard to quality assurance, programme content and delivery, and teaching arrangements.
Outcome
The outcome of employing this practice is ensuring strong commitment to the partnership to sustain the transnational education provision.
28 Feb 2017
Online and Blended Education / Institutional Governance And Management
Advancing towards the success of online education
An institution formulates a comprehensive strategy for the development of online education, including setting strategic goals, preparing and promulgating a roadmap for implementation and the designation of senior personnel and committees with responsibility for online education.
Purpose
The purpose of this practice is to guide an institution in the development of online education. The quality of the provision of online education largely depends on the directions, resources allocated and implementation of this initiative. Incorporating online education as a strategic goal of an institution warrants considerable efforts and resources required for its success. Formulation of a roadmap provides guidance to devise supportive institutional policies, to allocate required project manpower and financial resources, to develop infrastructure, to measure the accomplishment of milestones, as well as review and refine the actions taken. To steer and oversee the development and implementation of online education, it is useful to designate a committee and senior personnel to assume overall responsibility to realise the strategic goal.
Outcome
The outcome of this practice is a comprehensive strategy for realising the goal of providing quality online education.
28 Feb 2017
Institutional Governance And Management
Mutual trust sustains collaboration between governance and management
Understanding and respect between the governing body and the executive management of each other’s roles and functions and clear separation of responsibilities.
Purpose
This purpose of this practice is to promote a collaborative working relationship between the governing body and executive management. The governing body sets and reviews the broad strategic directions, exercises oversight, holds the executive management accountable for the daily operation of the institution, and satisfies itself that the executive management has carried out its duties properly. Executive management has the autonomy to make day-to-day management decisions and run the institution according to the strategic objectives set and the budget approved by the governing body. The governing body and the executive management work in tandem, respecting each other’s roles and responsibilities, towards achieving institutional goals.
Outcome
The outcome of employing this practice is that mutual trust and an effective working relationship is built between the governing body and the executive management that promotes the achievement of organizational goals.
28 Feb 2017
Institutional Governance And Management / Programme Development
Centralised control of quality standards of open learning
Formulation of a rigorous quality assurance (QA) system of uniform standards and the exercise of centralised control over programme delivery and assessment to safeguard the quality of provision maintains and enhances quality standards and recognition of qualifications.
Purpose
The purpose of the practice is to ensure the quality of graduates through adopting uniform standards. An institution, especially if engaged in open and distance education, may employ a centralised strategy to maintain its quality standards. For teaching and learning, programme delivery is standardised, including the form, frequency and length of face-to-face sessions as well as the number and methods of assessments. For programme development and review, all departments use the same set of guidelines and go through the same procedures for programme and course validations.
OutcomeThe outcome of employing this practice is the maintenance of consistent quality standards across different academic units of an institution.
28 Feb 2017
Programme Development
Guidelines and checklists for the design and implementation of General Education
An institution develops a set of guidelines and checklists to guide the development of General Education (GE) courses during the course development process.
Purpose
The purpose of this practice is to provide clear guidance for teaching staff to develop GE courses that meet the institution’s educational goals and mission. The guidelines set out the requirements for the design and implementation of GE courses which include (i) the objectives, expectations and desired characteristics of an institution’s GE (examples of desired characteristics); (ii) the non-discipline-specific contents and GE-specific learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities and the associated assessments, course registration restrictions, reading requirement in written assignments; and (iii) the approaches and institution-wide policies to coordinate and monitor the quality delivery of a GE course. Review checklists (sample checklist) are also provided which serve as a self-evaluation tool to help assess whether the curriculum of the proposed and/or revised course has met the institution’s GE requirements.
Outcome
The outcome of employing this practice is a clearer educational rationale and a more rigorous approach to the design and review of the GE curriculum.
24 Jun 2019