INQAAHE Conference 2021 workshops

Like in every edition, a set of workshops are arranged before INQAAHE Conference 2021 takes place. Given that the Conference will be held online this year, four workshops are scheduled for the first week of June. You can find more information on each workshop and its corresponding facilitator below. Registrations need to be made through the official Conference website.

Workshop 1: Guidelines of Good Practice (GGP)
1 June 2021 (Tue), 13:00 – 15:30 London time

A robust internal quality assurance is a guarantee for any quality assurance/accrediting body to ensure alignment with internationally recognized norms. It also supports and promotes organizational enhancement, efficiency and, therefore trust and success. The workshop will offer an interactive platform for setting a scene for establishment and operationalization of an internal quality assurance system for a quality assurance provider/accreditor in response to the INQAAHE Guidelines of Good Practice (GGP) and beyond. It will offer a methodology, including a suite of tools for a QA body to productively integrate, make use of and benefit from the GGPs in a real-world scenario while at the same time unpack the intricacies crucial for success for any QA – diversity of contexts, human and resource capacity and uniqueness each culture prides of.

Facilitated by:

Susanna Karakhanyan

Currently, Dr. Karakhanyan is employed by the Abu Dhabi Government as Higher Education Policy & Regulation Director at the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge in the United Arab Emirates. She also leads the major global network of tertiary education quality assurance providers as President of INQAAHE, which brings together more than 350 members worldwide. She consults governments on policymaking, governance as well as external and internal QA systems in a diversity of contexts globally. Dr. Karakhanyan’s expertise evolves around tertiary education in general and policymaking, governance and quality assurance in particular. Her expertise has been widely sought after by a diversity of systems and cultures. She authors and delivers capacity building events and external reviews of governance structures, legal frameworks and QA systems worldwide. She has authored, initiated and has been implementing a variety of projects under the auspices of the Council of Europe, UNESCO, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, Open Society Institute, IREX, to name some. All the projects address higher education reforms in general and diversity of aspects in legal frameworks, governance and quality assurance, in particular. Her service has been acknowledged in a diversity of contexts and systems globally. Dr. Karakhanyan holds M.S.Ed in Educational Administration/Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania, the USA and PhD in Social Sciences from Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Her research interests focus around higher education governance and administration, reforms, policymaking, policy diffusion and transfer, and external and internal quality assurance. Her research background has helped her tremendously in the establishment of new and evaluation/review of existing tertiary education systems, including, but not limited to external and internal (both quality assurance agencies and higher education institutions) quality assurance systems in a diversity of contexts at the global level.  

Erika Soboleva

Erika Soboleva, Ph.D. studied International Economics at the Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics. She graduated in 2006. In 2008 she defended a Ph.D. thesis “Competitive behavior of the IT-consulting companies in Russia”. Erika worked several years in the International Relations Department of Moscow University of Industry and Finance. First as a manager, lately in 2006-2008 as a Head of this department. In 2008 she became the Rector’s assistant on International cooperation. In 2009 she started working for the International office of the Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance and Career development (AKKORK). This agency is the first independent agency in Russia in the sphere of education quality evaluation and quality assurance. Erika was a coopted Board Member in INQAAHE 2013-15, and was elected to INQAAHE Board for the term 2015-2018 and 2018-2021 and an APQN Board member 2014-2016. In July 2016 Erika became the director of the AKKORK. Erika’s research interests lies in the areas of quality evaluation and quality assurance in education, e-learning quality evaluation, quality criteria, quality assurance systems in different countries and their comparison. Erika has published more than 60 works on quality assurance. In INQAAHE Erika leads a Recognition Committee which is in charge of the GGP alignment procedure.

Workshop 2: People Matter: Professional Development of Agency Staff
2 June 2021 (Wed), 08:30 – 11:00 London time

Quality assurance relies highly on people: the process of peer review is an integral part of QA processes, and a lot of attention is given to the selection and training of the peer reviewers. But what about the staff working at quality assurance and accreditation agencies? What are the specific skills and competences they need to carry out their work professionally and to a high standard? How to best support their professional development and to ensure a competent future generation of leaders in quality assurance? ENQA has created a QA Professional Competences Framework to support agencies in identifying and further developing the skills and competences of their staff. The workshop will present and discuss together with the participants the framework and its use for the benefit of professionalising QA agencies further. A second ENQA initiative, the ENQA Leadership Development, will also be presented and discussed, in order to support the participants in identifying good ways to elaborate similar schemes in their own contexts. The workshop is intended for anybody in charge of or interested in the HR development of QA professionals in QA agencies.

Facilitated by:

Maria Kelo

Workshop 3: Measurement of Learning Outcome Achievement – Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA+)
3 June 2021 (Thu), 13:00 – 15:30 London time

For students to be successful in higher education and their careers, they need higher-order skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, and written communication. To help higher education institutions reliably assess students on these essential skills and track their learning outcomes, CAE’s Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA+) leverages a performance-based model that, by design, situates students in real-world scenarios and requires them to construct a response to a given problem. Students are asked to analyze and synthesize information, address important issues, propose solutions, and recommend courses of action to resolve conflicts. Unlike other standardized assessments, there is no single “correct” answer for CLA+ performance tasks, and scores reflect a range of plausible and effective strategies. Student and institutional results are evaluated against CAE’s norm and criterion-referenced standards. This workshop will present an overview of CLA+ and its utility in measuring students’ learning outcomes in an international context.

Facilitated by:

Doris Zahner

Doris Zahner is the Chief Academic Officer at the Council for Aid to Education (CAE), a mission-driven, non-profit organization that develops performance-based assessments (CLA+, CWRA+, and SSA+) authentically measuring students’ essential college and career skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, and written communication. She oversees all research studies pertaining to CAE’s assessments and provides scientific oversight of scoring, equating, and reporting. Dr. Zahner holds a PhD in cognitive psychology and an MS in applied statistics from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her postdoctoral work at the Stevens Institute of Technology was on the use of diagrams in information systems design, and her personal research interests pertain to the use of diagrams in probability and mathematical problem solving. In addition to her responsibilities at CAE, Dr. Zahner is an adjunct associate professor at Barnard College and Teachers College, Columbia University, as well as New York University, where she teaches statistics courses to undergraduate and graduate students in the social sciences and public policy. 

Margo Griffith

Margo Griffith’s in-depth knowledge and experience of the Education sector and micro-credentialing is the result of working in and for higher education providers and Edtech leaders, nationally and internationally. She has led the Sales teams for multi-national Publishers McGraw Hill and John Wiley and Sons, and held National Business Development roles for LexisNexis and Cengage, in addition to leading the go to market strategy for a number of products within these companies and independent start-ups. She is passionate about the positive impact of technology within education and the enablement of lifelong learning and agility. Margo is a connector at heart and is a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion in all areas of life.

Workshop 4: More Permeable University Learning: Quality Assurance of Microcredentials
4 June 2021 (Fri), 08:30 – 11:00 London time

Microcredentials are not a new concept but are they an idea whose time has come? We have seen a rise in microcredentials being delivered and increased interest from learners in studying these short courses. This session considers what microcredentials are, who studies them and how their quality can be assured. Together we will consider the benefits for learners and the potential challenges for providers of opening up more flexible options which enable students to move between work and study. The session will offer a mix of presentation and discussion sessions. Participants will learn about potential models for delivery microcredentials and supporting flexible student pathways. There will also be opportunities for participants to share practice from their institutions and national contexts.

Facilitated by:

Sue Reece