D4.4.3

=Feedback collected regularly from staff regarding the effectiveness of the support for assisting disabled students. =

Evidence
There is an ongoing need to monitor the use of e-learning and ICTs for course delivery because there is as yet no consensus about what constitutes quality e-learning (Usoro & Abid 2008). These authors state that, ‘effective quality strategies, initiatives and tools are very important for convincing lecturers and other stakeholders to adopt e-learning’ (p. 80). Kidney et al. (2007) believe that, ‘a quality online course would be the direct result of a course creation process that included quality assurance strategies’ (p. 18).

Student perspectives are not the only ones necessary to assess. Usoro and Abid (2008) emphasize the importance of including academics and stakeholders views to ‘achieve a comprehensive measure of quality’ (p. 77-78).

Resources
Communities of practice are discussed by Gray (2004) who emphasises the benefits that the online environment offers for collegial information sharing. However she recommends that an accomplished moderator be employed to facilitate formal and informal discussion across e-learning’s technical, social, organisational, and pedagogical functions (p. 33).

Burgstahler et al., (2004), reporting on a case study, argue that accessible distance learning courses need ongoing effort (p. 243). They nominate challenges for that effort, which include: interpreting ambiguous standards; coordinating diverse and large communities to cooperate consistently; gaining faculty and staff buy-in, and overcoming technical problems. They conclude that to assure accessibility for all students and teachers necessitates that administration buy-in and support, includes ‘key stakeholders—including students with disabilities—in the decision-making process’ (p. 243).