The Design of a Quality Assurance System in Higher Education Selecting Key Performance Indicators

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The Design of a Quality Assurance System in
Higher Education Selecting Key Performance
Indicators

• Kerstin V. Siakas
• Alexander Technological Educational Institute of
  Thessaloniki,
• Department of Informatics, Greece
• siaka_at_it.teithe.gr

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Structure of presentation

• Towards an Open European Higher Education Area
• Meeting the challenges a pilot study of the
  department of Informatics, ATEI of Thessaloniki,
  Greece
• Experiences from the design of the
• Self-Assessment System
• Design of
• the self-assessment process
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• 2. Quality Assurance System
• Investigating
• ISO 90012000
• Balanced ScoreCard (BSC)
• Lessons learnt
• Future work

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Towards an Open European Higher Education Area

• The Bologna Process
• A common frame for diverse national systems
• Transparent and mutually recognised educational
  systems
• A National Quality Assurance Systems required by
  2005 in the member states including
• A definition of the responsibilities of the
  bodies and institutions involved
• Evaluation of programmes or institutions,
  including internal assessment, external review,
  participation of students and the publication of
  results
• A system of accreditation, certification or
  comparable procedures, international
  participation, co-operation and networking

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Aims and objectives of a quality assurance system
in HE

• to create a ground for
• visibility into the processes that support the
  study programme
• measurements of learning outcome, capabilities
  and competences (what the graduate is able to do)
• to support a system of continuous improvement

Consistent with the principle of institutional
autonomy, the primary responsibility for quality
assurance in HE lies with each institution itself
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Quality Assurance

• The educational assessment is established around
  four questions
• Which are the objectives of the educational
  institution?
• How does it try to achieve them?
• How does it know that it has succeeded in the
  achievement of the objectives?
• What are the changes for success?

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The department of Informatics of the
ATEI-Thessaloniki, GreeceMeeting the Challenge
of the BOLOGNA PROCESS

• A pilot project sponsored by the European
  Programme EPEAEK II (Operational Programme
  "Education and Primary Vocational Training")
  programme was carried out 2005-2006
• The working group included lecturers students
• Aims of the project was the creation of a system
  for
• Curriculum Assessment
• Quality Assurance
• Final report submitted July 2006

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Phase One Preparation

• Definitions of
• goals
• milestones
• roles and responsibilities

Project Planning

• The Bologna Process
• Assessment in HE
• Existing Laws Regulations
• Educational Quality Systems

Literature Review
Key Indicator Establishment
Goal Question Metric Methodology
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Activities

• Decision about goals and objectives of the
  assessment (why to measure)
• Team building, roles and responsibilities (who
  will do what - assignments)
• Setting up time-table and milestones (integration
  of tasks)
• Ensuring that educational processes and
  procedures are understood (agreement on
  vocabulary and meaning of different educational
  issues)
• Selection of research instrument (how to collect
  data)
• Selection of research population (where to find
  information, whom to ask)
• Design of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) (what
  to measure)
• Design of targets for comparison (what is the
  meaning of measures)

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Design of Key Performance Indicators
(KPIs)Using the Goal-Question-Metric (GQM)
Methodology

• Goal Continuous briefing on new products /
  technologies
• Question How many presentations / informative
  seminars are realised?
• Metrics Seminars organised by companies,
  department, academic staff, students
• Question What is the participation rate in
  research?
• Metrics Participation of academic staff (and
  students)
• in research programmes
• Number of publications

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KPIs Study Programme (Curriculum)

• Theory tutorials labs
• Knowledge Coverage of the discipline of
  Informatics
• Workload
• Quality of study material
• Assessment methodology
• Industrial placement Final year project
• Suitability to study programme
• Workload
• Scientific Level
• Assessment methodology
• Accomplishment of market requirements
• Accomplishment of requirements for postgraduate
  studies

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KPIs Academic Staff

• Availability of academic staff
• Level of Knowledge in the discipline of
  Informatics
• Teaching ability
• Motivation ability
• Research potential
• Use of Technical support material
• Building
• Technological

KPIs Infrastructure
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KPIs Student Support

• Secretarial
• Information
• Organisation of seminars, workshops etc.
• Socrates Leonardo da Vinci
• Careers office
• Library

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Phase Two Data Collection Analysis

• Questionnaires
• Interviews
• Observation
• Databases

Data Collection

• Quantitative, SPSS
• Qualitative

Data Analysis
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The Survey
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Phase Three Continuous Improvement

• Reports
• Internal meetings
• Workshops
• Publications
• Conferences, Journals

Dissemination of Results

• Cater for
• commitment
• financial support
• what to improve

Defining of Action Plan
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Experiences from the self-assessment

• Advantages
• Improved experiences in assessment
• Improved understanding of indicators for the
  quality assurance system
• Easier appreciation of necessary changes
• Disadvantages
• Increased workload
• Lack of commitment from management and colleagues

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Design of the Quality Assurance System (QA)

• The results from the self-assessment was the
  underlying base for design of the QA system
• SWOT analysis to find the Strengths -
  Weaknesses-OpportunitiesThreats of existing
  processes and practices
• The objectives and the requirements of the system
  have to be clear before the design of the Quality
  Assurance System
• A broader societal view is required

The question is not if students are ready for
the educational institutions and processes but
whether the institutions and the processes are
ready for the students
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ISO90012000 Preparation and design

• Preparation and design
• Understanding of the requirements
• Assessment of the situation
• Proposals
• Assurance of commitment
• Action plan

Plan

• Demings P-D-C-A Cycle to follow up that
• the action plan is accomplished
• the educational institution has succeeded
• in the achievement of the objectives

Do
Act
Check
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ISO 90012000 Application

• Policy and management assurance
• Selection and training of management
  representative and application leader
• Internal review
• Improvements of documentations
• Selection of accreditation body
• Preliminary visit
• Preliminary assessment and preparation stage
• Assessment
• Accreditation
• Maintenance

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The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) Methodology

• Four Perspectives
• Financial
• Customer (students)
• Internal procedures (the internal procedures of
  the institution)
• Learning and improvement (ability of constant
  training aiming at continuous improvement and
  competitiveness)
• Steps
• The institution
• sets goals targets for each of the perspectives
• collects the evidences to verify the performance
  and quality level (questionnaires, databases
  etc.)

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Lessons learnt from the pilot study

• The transformation from bad practices to
  survival and competitive success require
• An institutional culture change
• Management commitment

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The situation today in the institution

• Assessment is a fact
• A QA committee on institutional level is created
• Nation wide questionnaires were distributed in
  Sept 2007 to all HE institutions in Greece to be
  used as self-assessment
• Every department is asked to create a QA group to
  take action (within their normal duties) on the
  new directives

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Further work

• In the department of Informatics
• The creation of the QA group
• Discussions of the results from the previous
  self-assessment
• Investigation of the coverage of key performance
  indicators of the new nation wide questionnaire
• Decide on questionnaire to use (in its current
  form or with extension of other questions)
• Creation of an on-line version of the
  questionnaire
• Carry out assessment within the academic year
  2007-2008
• Dissemination of results

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Thank You!Questions?

• Kerstin V. Siakas
• siaka_at_it.teithe.gr