Mediated Quality: An Approach for the eLearning Quality in Higher Education

Even if the question of eLearning quality has been intensely discussed in the recent years, with several approaches and models arising, consistent transferring of concepts into practices is still difficult (Elhers & Hilera, 2012). In fact, eLearning is given different importance by the several stakeholders; consequently, the educational institutions’ culture of quality –meanings, discourses, representations and practices- is highly variable (Ehlers & Schneckenberg, 2010) and adapting to external frameworks and models of quality could be difficult. As a result, the implementation of quality eLearning in HEI is slowed down or blocked (Conole, Smith, & White, 2007). This article analyzes three quality models taking into account the different underlying values and quality cultures underpinning practices, in an attempt to show how the embedded epistemological values generate technical practices that may or may not respect the complexities of quality as a contextualized, multiperspective, multidimentional process. Drawing on this analysis, the authors introduce the concept of “mediated quality” as approach that takes into account the participants engagement as insiders of a (quality) learning culture. An example of this approach is given through the case of quality of teaching/learning, and the mediation introduced through Learning Design.