Journal of Educational Technology & Society

This study describes a set of institutional indicators that suggest minimum standards for the quality
assurance of learning supported by learning management systems in blended contexts. The indicators are evaluated by comparing seven universities that use a common learning management system to support student learning experiences. The responses to a qualitative questionnaire provide evidence of how the participating universities approach leadership, policy making, development, and evaluation as they relate to the quality assurance of learning management systems. A comparison among the universities reveals that they tend to have a better understanding of technical rather than educational issues related to quality assurance. A case is made for the need for universities to address key areas in order to reliably assure the quality of learning supported by learning management systems.

This article presents the structure and theoretical foundations of the Learning Object Review Instrument
(LORI), an evaluation aid available through the E-Learning Research and Assessment Network at
http://www.elera.net. A primary goal of LORI is to balance assessment validity with efficiency of the
evaluation process. The instrument enables learning object users to create reviews consisting of ratings and comments on nine dimensions of quality: content quality, learning goal alignment, feedback and adaptation, motivation, presentation design, interaction usability, accessibility, reusability, and standards compliance. The article presents research and practices relevant to these dimensions and describes how each dimension can be interpreted to evaluate multimedia learning resources.

Higher education institutions undertake a range of approaches to evaluating and making judgments about
the quality of their e-learning provision. This paper begins by exploring benchmarking as one current
strategy in common use in universities to identify and implement quality practices: from the use of
checklists (for example, of best practices and standards) to a more contemporary dynamic systems approach involving continuous cycles of feedback and improvement centred around the learners' experiences of elearning.

These practices are influenced by the teachers' design of e-learning and emerging technologies as
well as by the institutional and societal contexts in which both learners and teachers operate. We give an
account of two major evaluation studies at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), utilising a systems
approach to investigate the consequences of e-learning, and we inquire into the value of this particular
institutional approach for deriving e-learning quality. We use selections from the large dataset to describe
and analyse students' and teaching staff's experiences of an e-learning system (LMS) over a two-year
period. Our findings reveal that learners' experiences warrant consideration in shaping future e-learning
developments at UTS, and that students value e-learning in facilitating their access to education for making choices about their learning and for enabling engagement in collaborative and interactive learning activities, while they also recognise the current constraints on e-learning imposed by the developers of LMS technologies.