Credit Accumulation Systems and Learning Evaluation in Higher Education employing Information Technology

国家学位和大学评估机构(NIAD-UE)通过评估学习成绩，向那些在没有注册为全日制学生的情况下学习大学课程的人授予学位。最近兴起的利用信息技术的新型教学方法应该会对高等教育系统的发展产生深远的影响。我们从(A)技术、(B)立法和(C)质量保证三个方面研究了电子学习的趋势。在技术方面，应注意以下特点：大多数电子学习媒体转向互联网；更注重学习内容的改进，而不是信息基础设施的改善；由一所枢纽大学和相当多的合作学院组成的电子学习联盟在日本成功成立。关于(B)立法方面，应注意以下几个特点：在美国，《高等教育法》修改为…1992年，更多的教育被列入所谓的“50%规则”，即通过电信手段提供超过50%的课程的高等教育机构没有资格获得联邦学生援助，希望以此来应对普遍存在的低质量学位获得者。后来，为了放松对远程教育的法律限制，引入了远程教育示范计划，留下了联邦政府干预高等教育问题的问题。至于(C)质素保证方面，应注意以下特点：英国公开大学(OU)设有学分转移制度，学生在校外教育机构取得的学分，经审核后即获认可；OU亦设有OU验证服务，由OU委员会在审核程序后，对未获认可的教育机构作出确认，以确保学生取得OU颁发的学位，从而平衡扩阔学业范围与保证质素。我们的研究通过列举未来电子学习的问题来总结：学习者和教师之间双向交流的重要性；全球范围内学位质量的保证；更精确地平衡拓宽学术课程和质量保证；需要在传统的大学资格认证程序之外探索新的电子学习评估标准。较少

The National Institution for Academic Degrees and University Evaluation (NIAD-UE) grants academic degrees to those who are studying university-level courses without registering as full-time students by evaluating their learning achievements. The recent rise of novel teaching methods by utilizing IT should give profound influence to the development of higher education systems. We studied the trends of e-learning in view of (A) technical, (B) legislative, and (C) quality-assuring aspects.As for (A) technical aspect, the following characteristic features should be noticed : majority of e-learning media shifting toward Internet ; more attention being paid to the improvement of learning contents rather than information infrastructure ; an e-learning consortium being successfully established in Japan, with one hub university and quite a number of partner colleges. As for (B) legislative aspect, the following characteristic features should be noticed : In U.S.A., Higher Education Act was amen … More ded in 1992 to include so-called "50% rule", in which higher education institutions providing more than 50% of the courses via telecommunication means are not eligible for Federal Student Aid, hoping for counteracting against the prevalence of low quality academic degree recipients. Later on The Distance Education Demonstration Program was introduced to relax the legal restriction of distance education, leaving then the problem of federal intervention into the higher education issue. As for (C) quality-assuring aspect, the following characteristic features should be noticed : Open University(OU) in UK has The Credit Transfer System with which credits earned by the students at some external educational institutions are recognized after inspection ; OU also has the OU Validation Service, in which validation of non-recognized educational institutions by OU committee is granted after inspection procedures with the effect of their students acquiring academic degrees issued by OU, thus balancing the widening of academic course and the assurance of quality. Our studied are concluded by the listing future issues of e-learning : importance of bi-directional communication between learners and teachers ; assurance of quality of academic degree in global scale ; more precise balancing widening the academic courses and quality assurance ; needs to explore new evaluation standards for e-learning beyond the traditional university qualification procedures. Less