Benchmarking elearning

Benchmarking elearning in European universities

A new benchmarking exercise on e-learning was launched in the spring of 2009. The exercise was initiated by the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) and it is gathering a group of nine European universities. The project started in April 2009 and will end in December 2009.

The benchmarking exercise is co-organised by ESMU and European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU; www.eadtu.nl). It combines ESMU’s collaborative benchmarking approach (benchmarking through a comparative exercise of good practices between universities) and EADTU’s more individually-oriented approach. EADTU’s E-xcellence online tool, consisting of a set of 33 e-learning benchmarks, is used as a starting point to the benchmarking exercise.

The aim of the benchmarking project is to identify good practices on e-learning by learning from other participants. All participants will define an action plan/roadmap for improvement.

During the exercise, two workshops will be organised. The first workshop will take place on 26-27 May in Brussels and the second on 26-27 November in Odense, Denmark. Keith Williams from Open University (UK) will be the leading e-learning expert.

Timetable 2009

April                        Quick Scan exercise starting

1 May                      Deadline for filling out the Quick Scan and handing in the results

15 May                    Results of the Quick Scan exercise sent to all participating universities

26–27 May              1st Workshop in Brussels, Belgium: Defining benchmarks and the final questionnaire

Week 26                  Web based questionnaire on eLearning sent out to participants

4 September            Deadline for universities to fill out the questionnaire

30 October               Expert reviews/reports based on questionnaires sent out to universities

13 November            Deadline for universities to submit ideas for action plans

20 November            Results for action plans sent to all participating universities

26–27 November      2nd Workshop in Odense, Denmark: Defining and show casing good practices & discussion
-                                of individual action plans

Participating universities:

1.      University of Southern Denmark
2.      University of Copenhagen
3.      Aarhus University
4.      University of Latvia
5.      Lund University
6.      University of Kuopio
7.      University of Porto
8.      University of Bologna
9.      University of Oulu

The University of Southern Denmark hosts the online questionnaire for the benchmarking exercise (accessible only to project participants).

For further information, please contact Mrs Nadine Burquel at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

For further information on other benchmarking groups in European higher education, see also www.education-benchmarking.org.