Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to show results related to an evaluation process, which has done by an international group of expert professionals in topics as virtual education and organizational management. The evaluation was about the operational dimension identified previously by the analysis from literature review in order to contribute for the measurement of the implementation of e-learning in higher education institutions.

The operational dimension has four components and eleven factors. The components are: program generalities, research, educative media and study plan. The factors are: denomination and justified of the program, program structure, student’s profile, relationship with the external sector, research capability, research promotion, bibliographic resources, informatics services, curricular content and academic activities, expected learning outcomes and learning evaluation and monitoring. This dimension was developed through the revision of the scientific literature and some Colombian legal documents as the decree 1075 of 2015.

The research question proposed to solve was: Are the components and factors of the operational dimension suitable to measure it? The method used in this article was quantitative research and descriptive analysis using experts’ judgment.

This work was done through four stages:
(i) preparing instrument of evaluation,
(ii) selecting experts,
(iii) application of the evaluation and
(iv) analysis of results.

The consultation was conducted through an online questionnaire to experts in topics as virtual education and organizational management and affiliated with higher education institutions in Latin America.

The experts were asked about three aspects related to the operational dimension:
i) the importance of the factors that make up this dimension;
ii) the influence level of each component for doing a success measurement of a virtual program; and,
iii) the sufficiency of the components and factors.

The findings show high levels of agreement among experts (89%). Also according to 78.8% of the experts there are high levels of influence of the components for achieving a success measurement of virtual programs and moreover, 86.2% of the experts expressed high levels of sufficiency of components and factors to measure the operational dimension.

The contribution of this work was to provide a set of criteria, which can be integrated into a larger model, to measure in order to establish the current state from the academic-pedagogical or operational scope of the implementation of an e-learning solution in the higher education institutions. Finally, based on these results the operational dimension is suitable for measuring the state of the e-learning implementation. However, it is recommended include structural and functional elements to integrate a stronger measurement model.

Keywords:

e-learning, higher education, implementation of e-learning, expert’s judge, operational dimension and online education.