Abstract:

External quality agencies employ institutional audits as one of their quality assurance instruments to ensure stakeholders that higher education institutions are doing what they say they are doing and, more significantly, that what they are doing is effective. An important component of the audit process is the development and implementation of an improvement plan that addresses the audit panel's recommendations. In a South African open and distance e-learning higher education institution, this responsibility is often assigned to a team of two to four quality specialists and a group of voluntary quality champions, the "foot soldiers" of the internal quality assurance ecosystem. These quality champions frequently require support in making sense of their formative process experiences. Furthermore, due to the fast pace of higher education, there is frequently inadequate time for intricate time-consuming training sessions with consultants. Moreover, although the South African Council on Higher Education (CHE) designated the second cycle of institutional audits as a "reflexive praxis", universities were not given time to pause and reflect on the lessons learned from the audit process. To assist with this, the institution used the tried-and-true tool of reflection. This qualitative case study built on the work done by Ndlovu et al. (2022) that used the five-step reflective framework (reporting, responding, reasoning, relation and reconstructing) of Bain et al. (2002) to learn from the experience on the preparatory journey for the 2nd cycle of Institutional Audits by the CHE. The purpose of the study was to investigate the notion of quality assurance as a lived, learned experience that itself generates knowledge, rather than simply processes it (Harvey & Stensaker, 2008). Data were generated from semi-structured interviews and focus group sessions conducted with consenting quality champions. The main reflective questions were: Did your involvement in planning, implementing, and evaluating quality improvement plans influence your perspective on quality assurance at the university? If so, how so? The analysis of the findings revealed that the quality champions recognized they have a working knowledge and grasp of quality assurance processes and practices by reflecting on their engagement in quality assurance processes such as formulating and implementing improvement plans. Most significantly, setting aside as little as one hour to reflect on an audit or review process is an empowering process in and of itself. Furthermore, this study identified lived experience as a significant quality construct and knowledge generating lever in open distance and e-learning higher education institutions. The study concluded that higher education institutions must embrace formal reflective practices in order to foster the development of novel quality assurance methods and systems for future higher education.

Keywords:

Quality assurance, quality improvement, reflective praxis, lived experience, ODeL.