The E-xcellence label is provided by the E-xcellence review team for both conventional and open universities that offer blended and online education at institutional or faculty level.
The reviewers will determine if the programmes are eligible for the label based on the essential basic elements of accessibility, flexibility, interactiveness and personalisation
Quickscan with a review
After doing the quickscan as quick orientation, your university can choose for a review assessment by experts. This can be either done via an online assessment or via a full assessment on-site, with local-oriented recommendations of improvement by the review team.
For the review, a roadmap of improvement and reference material are required. This to prove that your answers from the quickscan are based on solid facts. The reviewers will look into the quickscan, related evidence and your roadmap as preparation to the online or on-site assessment.
Integrating the E-xcellence benchmarks
The review is based on:
current blended and online education performance;
the thoroughness of the self-assessment report;
completeness of delivered proof;
the chosen path of improvement (adequate and realistic).
The procedure includes the integration of (most) of the E-xcellence benchmarks in the internal quality assurance system. The review team provides:
review report;
recommendations regarding the improvement route;
instructions for cases that need to provide further details.
This is sent to EADTU and processed in a standardized format of reply.
The assessment will enable you to determine the performance of your online programmes and to pinpoint the requirements for further enhancement. With the instrument, your institution can map the online education efforts on the different sections.
For receiving the E-xcellence Associations Label you are required to integrate the relevant benchmarks in your internal Quality Assurance system. This to guarantee a continuous and repeated use of the E-xcellence benchmarks.
Checklist
What you need for the review
quickscan
all documents you referred to in the quickscan
passwords of courses you referred to in the quickscan
roadmap
university profile
evidence of which and how the benchmarks are integrated
names of people involved in filling in the quickscan and roadmap
Incentives for follow up
Benchmarking should be a continuous process of improvement and support universities in their goal of increasing quality. To stimulate universities to follow a path of continuous improvement of their blended and online education performance the label needs to be renewed every three years when a new self-assessment and path of improvement is presented.
It, therefore, is actually rewarding continued quality improvement. As indicated before, the procedure includes the integration of (most) of the E-xcellence benchmarks in the internal quality assurance system. This to show that the tool is an integral part of the internal assessment rather than a single assessment, and therefore taken as a reference every three years. The label is provided by the E-xcellence review team and can be used on the institutions or faculty’s website. All positively reviewed institutions/faculties are also displayed at the E-xcellence website
Virtual Benchmarking Community
A supplementary option offered as an extension to the benchmarking process of E-xcellence is the “E-xcellence Virtual Community: Associates in Quality”. Universities labelled as E-xcellence Associates have (as an option) access to a virtual meeting place on quality in online education. It is about sharing challenges and strengths. It is a place to find expertise as well as present your own expertise.