In today’s globalized, competitive landscape of higher education, universities in developing countries face a serious dilemma of how to reach international quality standards, given the scarcity of financial and human resources available. Quality assurance (QA), as a management tool to mitigate quality problems in higher education, often focuses on organizational policies and feedback, rather than on improvements to local-level academic practices in teaching and learning. This paper focuses on one of the important aspects of QA of teaching and learning: the preparation of examinations that are taken online. The paper presents the lessons learnt and possible ways forward for strengthening quality assurance practices in online assessment.

Although the University in question, Divine Word University, has been praised for its commitment to quality assurance, the issues identified for one of the proposed online exams ignited an aspiration to evaluate DWU QA practices pertaining to the quality of assessment design.

The paper discusses some lessons learnt and proposes three solutions for better quality assurance of the design of online examination: Quality of academic staff development and growth of practical expertise; Quality of assessment procedures and practices; Quality of preparation for technology enhanced assessment.

The author suggests that one of the viable ways forward in strengthening quality assurance practices in online assessment is through developing communities of practice in good assessment design, especially for online assessments, particularly among newer universities with limited resources.

Author Profile(s)
Dr Iwona Kolodziejczyk is an Associate Professor and Director of Centre for Learning and Teaching. For more than 10 years she has been engaged in the issues of quality assurance as a member of DWU Academic Quality Assurance Committee. She is an active researcher; her research interests are in gender and technology, technology in higher education, and academic integrity in technology-enhanced academic practices. She specializes in mixed methods research. She published a few research papers in international journals as well as presented her research findings at international conferences in various countries.