The CONCEDE Quality Framework

In this report we are attempting to design a quality framework for UGC in higher education. The task is challenging because the usual quality frameworks laid down in discipline specific catalogues of criteria are not applied to UGC, and content is not developed or authored by experts of a domain but by users, in higher education by learners. Therefore we are touching on a still white spot in this field. It is out attempt to develop a framework which can be used to enhance the quality of user generated content. We believe that this can be done by employing the already long introduced quality methodologies like peer-review and peer-reflection or self-assessment to the field of UGC. In addition we believe that not only users – in the case of higher education students, or more generically learners, have to be involved but also educational professionals and institutional quality managers. They have to be addressed if UGC should become more relevant for teaching and learning, and/ or on an institutional level.
This document outlines our approach to the question how all stakeholders around UGC can be involved into a quality methodology in order to consult, validate and reflect on content and on quality levels they wish to achieve. The framework we suggest is integrating some already well introduced methodologies for evaluation, review and reflection and in addition described how the different actors can be involved into activities leading to mutual review and better quality. The result is a quality pyramid, which includes reflection, review and assessment exercises. The innovative nature of this framework can be seen in two aspects:

• It is drawing on learners feedback , reflection and review to improve quality of content
• It is proposing a pathway how UGC can become institutional relevant

In Module 1 we will try to define the object of quality development: What is UGC? We will show that the term has undergone a development through different definition cycles since its invention and will outline the meaning it will have for our specific context.

In the following section (Module 2) we are analysing the current state-of-the-art of quality methodologies and how they can be applied to UGC. We are suggesting a quality model for UGC which is embedding UGC activities like enriching content, updating content, and reviewing into one single quality framework.

In an additional section (Module 3) we will then outline the quality pyramid and describe – on basis of a suggested scenario – concrete quality development activities.