Measuring Quality in Online Education: A Meta-synthesis

ABSTRACT

This article presents a meta-synthesis review of quality of online education (QOE) measurement approaches. In order to survey the existing body of knowledge, a qualitative method was employed to investigate what quality of online education is comprised of and how the concept has been measured through the literature. To achieve this, a total of 112 publications between 2000 and 2017 were analyzed. Results indicate that QOE factors are mostly focused on OE resources, input, and processes through this literature. There is a lack of evidence for output- and outcome-oriented approaches for quality factors identification and measurement. Most approaches focus on students’ views, with faculty and administrators’ views having less attention and very little focus on designers, employers, and clients. The lack of an integrated view of QOE not only in its definition but also in its measurement approaches is a key issue.