Quality Development as a Negotiation Process

Quality development in education has always been a field of great debates. It challenges believes and existing values of professionals. The nature of quality development is a constant adaptation process of the offered educational services to the target groups which are to be educated. Newer approaches highlight the aspect of negotiation as one very important for successful quality development (Ehlers/ Fehrenbach 2004).

This relates especially to the open nature of quality which in itself is not a normative definition but a relation between the perceived and the offered provision. Within this open concept of quality development, we can identify four steps (adapted from the Quality Decision Cycle of the European Quality Observatory, see Ehlers/ Pawlowski 2004) which have to be taken to develop quality in education in general, and e-learning in particular. To perform these steps of quality development, several competencies are necessary which we want to refer to as quality literacy. They involve:

• Knowledge about quality development for general orientation and selection,
  
• experience with the usage of instruments for quality development,
  
• the ability of innovation and modification to adapt instruments and concepts to the own situation or develop new and
  
• analysis abilities for assessing own needs and evaluate existing tools and concepts

Quality Literacy

The concept of quality literacy (Fig.1) aims at describing skills which enable individuals in the situation of quality development to act competent. Sometimes these situations are very complex, e.g. when it comes to restructuring whole organisational processes. Sometimes, though, there is only little complexity when only one instrument is applied to perform quality assurance, e.g. a questionnaire at the end of a program or course.

Quality literacy, moreover, is a concept which can not exclusively be learned by means of books or trainings but requires experience and practice. It is, thirdly, a concept which is subject to constant change, as the means and forms of technology enhanced education change as well.

Figure 1. Dimensions of Quality Literacy

Quality literacy (Fig. 1) can be seen as a set of central competences which contribute to carrying out successful education. A more precise description of the inner structure and coverage of the concept follows by elaboration of the four dimensions the concept contains.

1. Dimension: Knowledge About Quality
This dimension addresses the “pure” knowledge about the possibilities of today’s quality development and up-to-date quality strategies in e-learning. The term quality strategies refers to all guidelines, structures, rules, tools, checklists or other measures which have the goal of enhancing the quality of an educational e-learning-scenario.

2. Dimension: Quality Experience
This dimension describes the ability of using quality strategies. It is based on the experiences actors have with activities in quality development and applying quality measures and strategies to e-learning scenarios.

3. Dimension: Quality Innovation & Adaptation
This dimension relates to the ability which goes beyond the simple use of existing instruments and strategies. It refers to the modification, creation and development of quality strategies and/or instruments for ones own purpose. An innovative and a creative aspect are important for this dimension: Innovation in the sense of further development and adaptation processes of quality strategies within the given system, and creativity in the sense of thinking and developing new strategies for quality development.

4. Dimension: Quality Analysis
Quality Analysis relates to the ability to analyse the processes of quality development critically in the light of ones own experiences and the own situation and context. It is important to evaluate different objectives of quality development and negotiate between different perspectives of stakeholders. To “analyse critically“ means the ability of differentiation and reflection of existing knowledge and experiences with education and quality development. For Learners this would mean to be aware of the responsibility which they have for quality in education as a co-producer of learning success. For providers this means to enable flexible negotiation processes in the educational offers in which individual objectives and preferences but also societal contexts and organisational structures are integrated into the definition of quality objectives for education.

Quality Development in Four Steps

In the context of the Quality Development Cycle, mentioned above, the dimension of quality literacy apply to the different steps of quality development (Fig. 2).

Figure 2. Quality Development Cycle (adapted from Ehlers/ Pawlowski 2004)

According to the presented model (Fig.2), quality development takes place as a sequence of four steps which involve (a) a needs analysis, (b) a decision process, (c) a realisation phase and (d) an incorporation phase. The cycle thus takes on an organisations’ perspective. This is important to note because it is especially developed to answer the question how an educational offer can be provided through an organisation, e.g. a university, to be of high quality. It is not primarily concerned with helping learners, who have to choose a course or a program, helping them to find an offer of high quality. For each phase in the quality development cycle certain competencies are required for the actors performing the quality development process.

Step 1: Needs Analysis: In the needs analysis phase, the organisation examines the needs for quality, and the situation and the context in which the educational scenario is embedded. The needs analysis phase includes in itself an iterative cycle which consists of an analysis phase of the current situation, a negotiation processes between the involved stakeholders (e.g. learners, teachers, administration), and a definition phase where the needs are finally defined.
Stakeholders who are involved in these processes need the ability to evaluate and define the needs of all stakeholders which are involved in the educational scenario and negotiate between them to achieve a high quality of the offered learning environment (Quality Analysis). Additionally Knowledge about the possibilities of quality development and about quality strategies or good practice examples could be of help in the needs analysis phase.

Step 2: Decision Phase: In the decision phase the previously defined needs for quality development are matched with available approaches (Quality Knowledge is needed). If those approaches sufficiently meet the requirements, they have to be chosen as model for the quality development project, and the next phase can be entered. If there is no strategy which meets the needs, a new, own quality strategy has to be developed. For this phase two competences are especially important: Quality Knowledge and Quality Analysis skills. When it comes to developing an own strategy the ability of Quality Innovation, i.e. creatively and innovatively developing a fitting quality strategy, gains importance.

Step 3: Realisation Phase: In the realisation phase the quality strategy is implemented into the organisation and thereby adapted to the specific organisations’ needs. The new set of rules and processes have to be “transformed” into the organisations’ “language” and be refined for the organisations’ specific context. This process to a large extent involves experiences, adaptation processes, evaluation and analysis competencies. The usage of models and instruments for quality development like checklists, process descriptions and/or evaluation questionnaires, requires a high amount of Quality Experiences. The adaptation of these instruments and models demands for the ability of innovation and modification and is conceptualised in the dimension of Quality Innovation. Critical analysis and assessment form an integral part of this phase. Quality Analysis thus becomes important.

Step 4: Incorporation Phase: The incorporation phase relates to the modification of activities and actions which have to be performed by the individual actor of an organisation as a result of the quality development process. Quality development – in the final consequence – is always directed at modifying the behaviour of individual actors of an organisation – be it the tutors or teachers or the authors of courses, the system administrators or the organisational representatives. In the incorporation phase it is therefore examined whether the changed processes and new values which are suggested in a new quality strategy are incorporated into the activity patterns of the stakeholders. A great deal of critical analysis skills and evaluation experiences is necessary for this phase. Quality Analysis therefore becomes important in this phase.

Conclusion

As we have seen, quality development involves negotiation processes and can be described as a cycle of four steps. It covers quality development from the first organisations’ negotiations about their needs, to the modified behaviour of the organisations’ actors. For each phase a set of skills and competences is necessary to perform the required activities. These can be describes with the concept of quality literacy which is elaborated above. However, it becomes clear, that the dimensions of quality literacy are not completely distinct from each other. They relate to different skills and competences but influence each other. Quality Knowledge, for example, is connected to Quality Experience and this again to the ability of Quality Innovation in the field of quality development. However, the concept of quality literacy allows to operationalise skills which are necessary for successful quality development. This is important for trainings and support services in the field of developing quality for e-learning

In general it has to be noted that quality literacy applies to all forms of technology related educational concepts, like e-learning and blended learning – as well as presence courses. We derive the term from concepts of media literacy (Baacke 1996) which as a concept describes the abilities which individuals need, to act competent in a world mediated through media.

There are commonalities and differences between “traditional” educational scenarios and e-learning. Concerning quality development in both educational “domains” we have to note that it is a process of negotiation, with the goal of providing successful education. For e-learning we additionally have to deal with the specific field of technology. It becomes clear that additional areas of knowledge apply here, in principal, however, quality development requires the same competences of negotiation.