In a move to alter the way distance education measures quality, the National University Telecommunications Network (NUTN), Hezel Associates and Cisco Systems released an innovative tool for quality assessment. The Interactive Quality Assessment Tool (IQAT) debuted on June 12 at NUTN 2006 in Minneapolis, Minn.
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QAT (pronounced I-Kat), which is sponsored by Cisco Systems, is a web-based instrument designed by assessment and distance education professionals. IQAT will facilitate consistent benchmarking across multiple institutions through sets of shared data groups. NUTN, a distance learning professional organization, and Hezel Associates, an education research, evaluation and strategic services firm, developed the tool in response to findings from a study last year on benchmarking in distance education. The study pinpointed the need for a means of systematic program review.

“Systematic performance measurement is not a universal process,” said Carole Hayes, coordinator of student support and program evaluation at Florida State University. “IQAT is well positioned to both lead and continuously respond to the processes necessary to describe, define, and improve online instruction. It requires reflection on processes and outcomes and provides a vocabulary that will continue to evolve.”

“For the distance learning community, IQAT means having a reliable benchmarking tool,” said Janis Hall, chair of the NUTN Advisory Board. “It will advance distance education by providing a new model of comparison. This will allow us to re-evaluate our industry standards and better respond to internal and external pressures for assessment.”

For more information, visit www.iqat.org