Quality assurance in higher education has become a global activity. In the European Higher Education Area, cross-border quality assurance has been heavily encouraged by the European Commission. Behind this, lies the belief that encouraging competition among quality assurance bodies and introducing a liberal 'market' logic into the sector would…

Purpose: Using a descriptive case study approach, this paper aims to validate academic librarians' perceptions that they are marginalized by faculty during academic program reviews, and recommends ways for the two groups to collaborate more effectively to make program reviews more meaningful. Design/methodology/approach: The paper describes a case…

Interdisciplinarity is heralded as a relatively new educational and research paradigm that can effectively address complex problems at disciplinary boundaries. Yet little is known about the extent to which interdisciplinarity has penetrated higher education, nor about how students and program administrators view its usefulness. Through a case…

This paper presents the results of an empirical descriptive and contrastive study designed to assess how closely postgraduate translation programmes fit the reality of professional practice. Focusing on medical translation, the case study analyses the convergences and divergences between the competences that professional medical translators deploy…

In the context of future of academic librarianship terms such as "blended" and "embedded" librarian have been used to describe emerging greater levels of involvement within the universities enterprise. Simultaneously new pedagogical approaches are being developed towards more authentic and engaging learning experiences. This…

The online environment presents a unique challenge to higher education. Shifting from the face-to-face format to online not only involves rethinking course design, but requires careful consideration of when and how to teach students, how to find and evaluate information needed to successfully complete coursework. One solution is faculty teaming…

The purpose of this case study was to explore faculty members' perceptions of the QEP in a public doctoral university with highest research activity. Particularly, the study explored how faculty members perceive the role of the QEP in student learning and institutional effectiveness, the relevance of the QEP activities in student learning and…

Web-based video is one of the technologies which can support meaningful learning from practice--in addition to practical benefits such as accessibility of practices, flexibility in updating information, and incorporating video into multimedia resources. A multiple case study was set up on the use of a web-based video learning environment in two…

With contemporary requirements for objective measurement, program evaluation is a certain necessity. Most program evaluation is designed in response to external demands for assessment. Moreover, such evaluation is typically developed only after programs already exist. However, the proliferation of online learning provides new opportunities for…

Responding to the call for reform in American graduate teacher education programs, the authors of this paper examine the design of a teacher action research-based approach in which teacher inquiry lies at the heart of individual courses and the program as a whole. The authors report on the transformation of program graduates from teachers to…

Open learning provides a unique opportunity to professionals for their continuing education and capacity building. Arab Open University, Kuwait (AOU) has been a successful enterprise with an objective to address the educational needs of masses in the Arab universities. Continuing education in the Arab region was the most neglected part of the…

A year-long collaborative action research project used networked technologies to connect researchers at a university-based online professional development program and a group of practitioner researchers based in a range of schools and educational agencies in several countries. They studied the process and effects of online professional development…

The GK-12 program of the National Science Foundation is an innovative program for enriching the value of graduate and advanced undergraduate students' education while simultaneously enriching science and mathematics teaching at the K-12 level. GK-12 is a fellowship program that offers graduate students and advanced undergraduates the opportunity…

A current trend in evaluation to balance quantitative measures and qualitative judgments provided the philosophical context for this case study. In the late 1960's a balanced methodology was devised to evaluate doctoral programs in the School of Education at Indiana University. The model of doctoral education that emerged facilitated analysis, but…

This case study describes the evolution of a Master's program in community psychology from its inception in 1976 through 1984. Yin's (1978) discussion of the critical events in the routinization of innovations and his emphasis on passages and cycles are used to analyze the development of the Master's program in community psychology at Indiana…