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Background
Following decades of rapid growth in higher education numbers of students and institutions and its growing internationalisation, there is increasing recognition that greater attention should now be paid to its quality and relevance. At the OECD Ministers of Education meeting in Athens (June 2006), the OECD was asked to advise on how better to understand and evaluate the various dimensions of quality in higher education.
In response, the OECD embarked on a series of three experts meetings in 2007, gathering top international specialists to define the scope of the task and discuss options for data development. Indeed, existing international comparisons and rankings of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) focus on research. To complement this, the OECD would like to develop a measure that gives due weight to teaching and learning. The experts advised that it was desirable to launch a feasibility study to explore the scope for developing an international Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO) that would measure learning outcomes in ways that are valid across cultures, countries and languages. The work of the experts was presented to an informal meeting of OECD Education ministers in Tokyo in January 2008. The topic of the meeting was evaluation of higher education in the broader sense. The importance of establishing valid and reliable measures of learning outcomes was underlined and the OECD’s work to assess the feasibility of an international assessment of higher education learning outcomes was welcomed.
As a result, the OECD is now working on this AHELO feasibility study, with the support of both governments and institutions, to gauge whether an international assessment of higher education learning outcomes that would allow comparison between HEIs across countries is scientifically and practically feasible. Planning is still ongoing, but a roadmap has been developed that outlines the various types of activities to be undertaken as part of this endeavour.
Focus of the AHELO feasibility study
AHELO focuses on an assessment of students’ knowledge and skills towards the end of a three or four-year degree programme. The assessment will be based on a written test of the competencies of students, and will be computer delivered.
Aims of the AHELO feasibility study
The feasibility study is expected to demonstrate the feasibility – or otherwise – of comparing HEIs’ performance from the perspective of student learning rather than relying upon research-based measures which are currently being used across the globe as overall proxies of institutional quality. The feasibility study will assess whether it is possible to measure what undergraduate degree students know and can do in order to provide better information to HEIs, governments, and other stakeholders, including students and employers. This information could contribute to HEIs’ knowledge of their own teaching performance, and thereby provide a tool for development and improvement.
In operational terms, the feasibility study will have two aims. First, test the science of the assessment – whether it is possible to devise an assessment of the outcomes of higher education which enables to make reliable statements about the performance/effectiveness of learning in institutions of very different types, and in countries with different cultures and languages; and second, to test the practicality of implementation and of motivating HEIs and students to take part in such an assessment.
The main criteria to assess the success of the feasibility study would be to provide a proof of concept that the various instruments considered can be applied in diverse institutional, cultural and linguistic settings and yet provide valid, reliable and free-of-bias measures of student learning outcomes as well as indirect measures of tertiary education quality. With respect to implementation, success would be defined in terms of meeting minimum student participation and response rates thresholds.
Four strands of work involved
Any assessment of tertiary education learning outcomes will need to define and operationalise criteria for what constitutes quality. The OECD acknowledges that there is no generally accepted definition of what higher education outcomes ought to be, but considers that there are promising ways to examine various facets of learning outcomes underway. The feasibility study will thus involve different kinds of activities to explore the feasibility of directly measuring or indirectly capturing various aspects of quality. Several strands of work are foreseen. These will be carried out independently but coherently.
First, the feasibility study will consider different types of assessment instruments to measure learning outcomes directly, and explore their validity in an international context. In this respect, the OECD considers it important to cover both discipline-related competencies and transversal higher-order competencies manifested or required by particular disciplinary contexts. The feasibility study will thus encompass two assessment strands, which together would embrace a wide spectrum of learning outcomes: a generic skills strand and a discipline strand. But summative measures of learning outcomes are only one facet of quality, and the OECD is also committed to explore outcomes measures in terms of value-added to meet the information needs of the various groups of stakeholders. The feasibility study thus comprises a value-added measurement strand. Finally, reflecting the OECD recognition of the need for a multi-dimensional approach to tertiary education quality, the feasibility study also includes a contextual strand of work that will explore the development of indirect measures and contextual information indicators at institutional level. A more detailed description of each of the strands is provided here .
Questions on AHELO
Please check the AHELO FAQs to answer your most common questions on AHELO and the feasibility study.
If you do not find your answer, please write to ahelo@oecd.org for more information.
Read more on this theme and related activities please contact: ahelo@oecd.org
See also AHELO related websites
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