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This study aims to report the design, development and evaluation of a digital quality assurance application aimed at improving and ensuring the quality of assessment programmes in higher education.

The application was developed using a design-based research (DBR) methodology. The application’s design was informed by a literature search and needs assessment of quality assurance stakeholders to ensure compliance with daily practices and accreditation requirements. Stakeholders from three study programmes evaluated the application.

As part of the development of the application, module- and programme-level dashboards were created to provide an overview of the programme’s outcomes, assessment methods, assessment metrics, self-evaluated quality indicators and assessment documents. The application was evaluated by stakeholders at the module and programme levels. Overall, the results indicated that the dashboards aided them in gaining insight into the assessment programme and its alignment with underlying assessments.

Visualisation of the assessment programme’s structure and content identifies gaps and opportunities for improvement, which can be used to initiate a dialogue and further actions to improve assessment quality.

The application developed facilitates a cyclical and transparent assessment quality assurance procedure that is continuously available to various stakeholders in quality assurance.

Nowadays, the higher education institutions (HEIs) of Thailand are affiliated by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation and other relevant Ministries which connects the state-of-the-art technology/facilities to all academic programmes at HEIs. Thailand has been successful in the growth in access to higher education across the country, but there are many specific requirements to improve the accountability of higher education system in the nation across many decades. This paper provides an introduction of holistic information about Thailand’s higher education system. It then describes an overall picture of developing and managing the quality assurance (QA) of Thai higher education. It also points to the details of criteria, processes, and systems which were adopted into the model of QA such as higher education standards, accreditation process of curriculum, Thailand Qualifications Framework, as well as provides the linkage between national education act, policy and standards, QA, feedback for continuous improvement as the key component of QA in the educational system. Finally, the paper presents the challenges and opportunities in the rapid change of the twenty-first century and globalisation as the main points and crucial factors requiring Thai HEIs to continue improving their quality effectively.

The purpose of this study is to share quality process experience from a US comprehensive university to use both direct (participation rate and assessment quality) and indirect assessment measures (assessment survey) to evaluate the quality process.

A mixed method design was used to evaluate the quality process. The qualitative design used thematic analysis to find the common themes from the assessment survey. The quantitative design included reliability and internal consistency for the survey and inter-rater reliability for the peer review.

Findings indicated that participation rate and assessment quality improved over the years. Faculty provided positive feedback about assessment website, the peer review process and feedback but negative perspectives on the assessment management software and heavy workload on assessment activities. The researcher shared the actions made based on three-year assessment results, especially how leaders have used it to align with planning and budgeting to close the institutional effectiveness loop.

This research had two limitations. The inter-rater reliability of the peer review was not high and the number of peer review reports in two years were so different, so the results could not be checked for statistical significance.

The meta-assessment results could have important implications for other universities to improve the quality process.

There have been limited studies on using both direct and indirect assessment measures to evaluate the quality process. This study uses multiple measures to provide accurate results for administrators’ decision-making in resource allocation.

As the 1960s drew to a close, Congress found itself grappling with an increasing array of complex technological issues that it was ill equipped to analyze and that could be the cause of costly blunders if acted upon incorrectly. To alleviate this situation, the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) was created in 1972 under Public Law 92–484 in order to advise Congress on issues in science and technology so that relevant information would be available when pertinent legislation was being developed. Under the leadership of its director John Gibbons, OTA has earned the distinction of providing Congress, that most political of bodies, with timely and objective information without becoming mired in political skirmishes. Despite this distinction, OTA is one of the smallest government agencies, with a budget of twenty million dollars and a staff of 140. Its organization is remarkable for its simplicity. A bipartisan congressional Technology Assessment Board governs the agency overall but appoints the director who has full responsibility for running it. The nine agency divisions are organized according to scientific disciplines and report to the director with little or no intervening bureaucracy. Outside expert advice is available from the Technology Assessment Advisory Council. The result is an organization that is equally balanced politically and scientifically, that is streamlined and efficient, and that allows input from its governing members. This structure also allows great flexibility in the research and production of assessment reports. To do an assessment, OTA deploys its experts to go out and gather the information needed on the wide‐ranging topics it has been commissioned to research. The topics are chosen according to the need and interest of both houses and both political parties. Outside experts are sometimes called upon to do research but OTA exercises the final responsibility over their reports. Factual conclusions and options are presented but opinions are never given. The manner in which the information is acted upon is always left to Congress, a major reason for OTA's success.

In the context of lifelong learning society, education experts pay more and more attention to online assessment (OLA) correlated with the concept of e-learning environment. This chapter builds upon these issues concerning the e-learning environment and the inevitable move to using OLA which is a natural outcome of the increasing use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) assisting in enhancing flexible learning and assessment.

The main purpose of this research is to (a) analyze the postgraduates’ perceptions toward OLA they had taken part in, and (b) identify if there are significant differences in these perceptions based on the variables of gender and skills of using ICTs. Subjects were postgraduate students of master third level enrolled in “Advanced seminar in Islamic Education” syllabus in Faculty of Education, Umm Al Qura University, K.S.A. The study used an e-questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to investigate postgraduate students’ attitudes and opinions about OLA.

The results of the study indicated highly positive perceptions of OLA. In addition, the study concluded that gender and ICTs familiarity significantly affect postgraduate students’ responses in most of the areas studied. The study recommended the necessity of implementing OLA culture as a way to the formation of the knowledge-based society.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the findings of the first stage of a project seeking to evaluate and overcome inter-professional barriers between health and social care staff within a single, co-located, integrated community team. The project seeks to answer the following questions: first, Do inter-professional barriers to integrated working exist between health and social care staff at the interface of care delivery? Second, If inter-professional barriers exist, can joint health and social care assessments help to overcome them? The paper develops the current evidence base through findings from a staff questionnaire and the initial findings of a pilot study of joint health and social care assessments aimed at overcoming inter-professional barriers to integration.

The first stage of the project involved running an anonymous, online questionnaire with health and social care staff within a single, co-located community adult health and social care team. The questionnaire aimed to explore staffs’ perceptions of inter-professional collaboration when assessing the health and care needs of service users with a high degree of complexity of need. The second element of the study presents the initial findings of a small pilot of joint health and social care assessments. A second staff survey was used in order to provide a “before and after” comparative analysis and to demonstrate the effect of joint assessments on staffs’ perceptions of inter-professional collaboration at the interface of care delivery.

Health and social care staff value joint working as a means of improving quality of care. However, they also felt that inter-professional collaboration did not occur routinely due to organisational limitations. Staff members who participated in the pilot of joint assessments believed that this collaborative approach improved their understanding of other professional roles, was an effective means of enabling others to understand their own roles and helped to better identify the health and care needs of the most complex service users on their caseloads. Initial findings suggest that joint assessments may be a practical means of overcoming inter-professional barriers related to a lack of communication and lack of understanding of job roles.

The questionnaires highlighted the need for integration strategies that are aimed at facilitating collaborative working between staff of different professions, in order to achieve the aims of integration, such as a reduction in duplication of work and hand-offs between services.

To date, few studies have explored either staff perceptions of collaborative working or the effectiveness of joint assessments as a means of overcoming inter-professional barriers. This paper adds new data to an important area of integration that legislators and researchers increasingly agree requires more focus. Although the findings are limited due to the small scale of the initial pilot, they provide interesting and original data that will provide insight into future workforce integration strategies.

This paper sets out to examine methods that can be used to enhance the quality and consistency of dissertation assessment.

The paper includes a review of literature on quality, consistency and criteria of dissertation assessment to highlight the current practices in higher education. A case study approach was followed to pilot a range of assessment approaches and criteria in an attempt to measure and ultimately improve assessment consistency within the case study school's dissertation module on undergraduate programmes.

This paper highlights the main findings of the literature and the case study phases. Outcomes of two dissertation assessment exercises, a workshop organised among dissertation assessors and an analysis of previous years' dissertation assessment results from a case study school are outlined. Findings from two dissertation assessment exercises revealed wide variation in the assessment of dissertations by the school's assessors. Hence, a dissertation workshop was organised to disseminate the results and to discuss the implications for the school's assessment practice, which identified several initiatives to enhance the quality and consistency of assessment.

The need to ensure quality, consistency and improved criteria of assessment is particularly emphasised within modules where assessment is through one substantial piece of work such as a dissertation. This study highlighted the many challenges that a Programme Leader faces when devising an assessment strategy for a dissertation module.

Quality assurance (QA) at one University has evolved over the past 15 years through emerging National and European standards, various leadership initiatives and through the engagement of key stakeholders in co-designing and implementing internal QA processes. In 2000, the QA process was focussed mainly on quality review (QR) that involved extensive reporting of information. It was characterised by stakeholders as a largely reactive culture, treated with scepticism by faculty staff and that struggled to convince both management and faculty that QA provided value. In 2016, QR is now leaner, more evidence based and focussed around creativity and enhancement. In addition to QR, additional QA processes now incorporate a variety of activities including benchmarking, structured policies and procedures and research assessment. QA is also part of a tripartite approach that links quality, strategy and performance together, with quality focusing on assuring an appropriate standard of excellence, strategy guiding faculty towards a vision of the future and performance providing evidence of quality enhancement and strategy execution. The paper provides a case study of the transformation of QA at the University.

The research uses a case study approach. It documents a methodology used to engage a wide number of stakeholders in a self-evaluation process and the results of that process, i.e. enhancements to the internal review process and various policies and procedures.

There are early indications that the University’s internal QA has migrated towards a more responsive culture and is increasingly endorsed by the various internal and external stakeholder groups.

This paper presents the evolution of QA and potential lessons for the wider Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s) sector.

This paper provides a case study of changes to QA processes at one university that has risen significantly in various university rankings since. Some evidence is provided to show that quality initiatives have contributed to overall performance.

To gain an in-depth understanding and provide direction to governments on their quality measurement practices related to open government data (OGD), this paper aims to develop a common frame of reference for quality assessment of OGD.

Qualitative meta-synthesis was used to synthesize previous studies on the quality measurement of OGD. This paper applies a meta-synthesis approach to integrate 10 qualitative studies into a common frame of reference for quality assessment of OGD.

Based on a seven-step meta-synthesis, the paper proposes a common frame of reference for quality assessment of OGD, which includes six indicators, namely, accuracy, accessibility, completeness, timeliness, consistency and understandability.

A common frame of reference for quality assessment of OGD will help researchers better understand the quality assessment of OGD and government agencies to improve the quality of OGD that they publish.

Accreditation and external peer review play important roles in assessing and improving healthcare quality worldwide. Evidence on the impact on the quality of care remains indecisive because of programme features and methodological research challenges. The purpose of this paper is to create a general methodological research framework to design future studies in this field.

A literature search on effects of external peer review and accreditation was conducted using PubMed/Medline, Embase and Web of Science. Three researchers independently screened the studies. Only original research papers that studied the impact on the quality of care were included. Studies were evaluated by their objectives and outcomes, study size and analysis entity (hospitals vs patients), theoretical framework, focus of the studied programme, heterogeneity of the study population and presence of a control group.

After careful selection 50 articles were included out of an initial 2,025 retrieved references. Analysis showed a wide variation in methodological characteristics. Most studies are performed cross-sectionally and results are not linked to the programme by a theoretical framework.

Based on the methodological characteristics of previous studies the authors propose a general research framework. This framework is intended to support the design of future research to evaluate the effects of accreditation and external peer review on the quality of care.