Developing an agenda for online education in the Caribbean: The importance of student perceptions of quality

Abstract

With globalization, there has been increasing pressure on tertiary education institutions in the region to move towards the use of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) to widen access to their programmes. In 2004, the University of the West Indies Distance Education Centre (UWIDEC) began using a blended approach to course delivery, which involved online courses as part of the course delivery mix. Between 2004 and 2006, UWIDEC, St. Augustine, developed 12 online courses facing various challenges and achieving some successes. To date, however, while various measures have been adopted to ensure the quality of these courses, no formal quality assurance evaluation has been conducted. This paper presents the findings of student evaluations conducted by UWIDEC, St Augustine. This descriptive study, seeks to highlight the indicators of quality identified by students, and the importance of these indicators in setting an agenda for the expansion of online education in the region