Van Kemenade ACT

On June 2^nd and June 3^rd    a small workshop for CLEAR+ National Agency members and assessors took place in Napels, Italy. CLEAR+ aims to improve the assessment process of ERASMUS+ by programme-level updates, learning from experience and use of digital tools and software to deliver complementary, multi-media and multi-language resources. The Italian National Agency (INDIRE) took care of the practical organisation and Paul Guest was the trainer and moderator of the process (in the middle of the photo). The group consisted of eleven managers, five internal assessors and twenty external assessors from all levels of education, including adult education. Nine countries were represented (Romania, Cyprus, Norway, Iceland, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Poland and the Netherlands). Four participants were Dutch (on the sides of the photo).

A model of design rethinking was used, that consisted of four steps, three diverging and 1 converging:

1. 1. Scoping successes and challenges
   2. Mapping problems and difficulties
   3. Suggesting and proposing solutions
   4. Realistic action planning

The group worked hard to define problems in the assessing process and to suggest solutions. Problems relate for instance to unclarity of some of the guidelines; to the lack of smart indicators in the final reports and unclarity of required documents for final report assessment as well as the lack of exchanging experiences between assessors. Solutions suggested were improvement of the guidelines; more training and support for assessors, training for benificiaries (as well as assessors) on smart indicators, and to update and circulate CLEAR+ final report briefing sheets. The second day the group discussed the future, regarding the use of AI (e.g. for translation) and regarding topics for videos (and podcasts) to support assessors.

 

From Monday 14th of April 2025 till Wednesday 16th I was invited to Zagreb (Croatia) to be a member of the auditteam that was assigned by the Agency for Science and Higher Education (AZVO) to assess the initial accreditation of an associate degree course on applied economics.

On Tuesday, the two year course, 120 ECTS, was presented by the management, teachers and external stakeholders. Of course, a visit to the premises was part of the audit. Since it concerns an online course, a focus especially was on the facilities for webinars, online assessments and such. The audit team drafted a concept of the report on Wednesday morning.

All in all an interesting experience.

In 2024 my website had almost 40.000  visitors and 88.000 views.

 

 

Most visitors  are from the US (10.700). Second is China with 4567 views. The Netherlands are sixth with 1692 visitors.

The publication/citation page with all my articles was visited (only) 229 times… I need to advertise it more???

In post #80 I mentioned the interesting research that Eltjo Bazen was working on in the framework of his master program Quality Management at SUAS. The title was:  Additions to the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG) and their Underlying Visions of Quality

Eltjo has chosen an interesting topic for his master’s thesis. He  wondered what motivates Quality Assurance Agencies (QAA) that have to apply these guidelines to make additional additions to the existing list. This led to the rich research question: What vision(s) of quality appear(s) from the additions to the ESG, made by QAAs in their European Quality Assurance (EQA) activities of higher education, how widely is/are this/these vision(s) spread and how well do they fit to the ESG and its underlying vision of quality?

As a theoretical foundation, he first provided a definition of the most important terms used, such as quality, quality assurance, and describes the theoretical Concept of the Four Quality Paradigms (CFQP) by Van Kemenade & Hardjono, which he uses for his analysis.In his research design, he begins by asking himself, in line with Steven Spear, what his assumptions are. Then a literature review is conducted, which shows that this topic has not been researched. Subsequently, he conducted desk research and sent a questionnaire to the QAAs, leading to a list of 38 added criteria. In the next step, these were presented to experts in interviews to examine what pattern of values lies behind these additions, using the CFQP.

Perhaps somewhat disappointingly, it appears that no thematic or regional pattern can be discovered. Moreover, it turns out that – just as in the original ESG – the empirical and reference paradigms also dominate in the supplemented guidelines. Nevertheless, Eltjo can conclude that the QAAs that add guidelines, are more focused on the emergence paradigm than the original criteria, such as the guideline to have policies for the third mission of higher education institutions and for the SDGs. This may mean that QAAs are more aware of the ‘wicked’ environment in which higher education institutions find themselves. After the results, an interesting discussion follows, and the author returns to his assumptions. Serious consideration has been given to shortcomings of the research, such as a possible insufficient understanding of the four paradigms among the interviewees. A number of interesting suggestions are made for further research. Finally, the thesis contains a practical list of recommendations for QAAs and for the process of revision of the ESGs that has recently started. The outcomes of the thesis should be included in this.
This is the more the case, since the master thesis of Eltjo was rewarded with a nine (on a ten point scale)!  Congratulations with your result, you made me proud of you!

From 18th of November till 27th seven times a workshop was given to 79 caregivers of White and Yellow Cross Care Foundation. The topic this time was giving, receiving and asking feedback. But moreover the ultimate goal is to co-create a feedback culture within the organisation.

To make that happen these trainings were the first step. In the morning theories were presented about feedback and the participants were trained in practical exercises to be able to actually do so. In the afternoon teams worked together to discuss their current feedback culture and the one they desired.

The course was highly appreciated as one can see from the results of the questionnaire that the participants filled in. Actually, the feedback to the trainer about their satisfaction of his work.

Three staff members are trained to give this training in future, to organise an onboarding course on this topic and  a refresher course, maybe next year.

My brother inn law has a saying that I always keep in mind: Work Hard, Play Hard. So after the trainings I also tried to relax and enjoy myself. This time I was lucky to be invited by Louis and Mandy Wever to a meeting of their Rotary Club. I received a very warm welcome and had a very interesting and pleasant evening. Thanks Louis and Mandy for inviting me…