Education Tech Research Dev (2012) 60:1129–1130

DOI 10.1007/s11423-012-9268-z

BOOK REVIEW

I. Jung, C. Latchem (eds): Quality assurance

and accreditation in distance education and e-learning:
models, policies and research
Routledge, New York, 2012, 310 pp, ISBN: 978-0-415-88735-9

Michael Beaudoin

Published online: 14 August 2012

Ó Association for Educational Communications and Technology 2012

For an overly long period, much of the research and writing dealing with the assessment of
distance education courses and programs focused on quality comparisons between face-
to-face and distance instruction, and on the relative merits of various technologies in
delivering courses at a distance. In fact, in his Foreword, Sir John Daniels alludes to the
value of reliable assessment data on distance education to combat its image problem. Now,
we have finally begun to see increasing attention to measures to assess the quality of online
education as a sui generis activity that provides practitioners and scholars with useful data
to further inform and advance this burgeoning worldwide phenomenon. This is a promising
trend, as it suggests the field has evolved and matured to the point where we can assess the
quality of online teaching and learning for the purpose of improving performance and
outcomes, rather than to legitimize activity in this realm.
This volume makes a valuable contribution to the growing body of assessment-related
work in this area, and as it is co-edited by two well regarded researchers, we can be assured
that it includes authors whose chapters have been carefully vetted. The book’s organization
presents an effective topical sequence, with chapters focusing on assessment-related issues
in specific contexts- higher education, online education, international, regional, types of
institutions, specific institutions, consortia, and corporations- then finishing with a broader
discussion of quality assurance in the final chapters to nicely pull the entire body of work
together. This approach allows the reader to be selective in choosing those chapters most
relevant to their particular organizational setting, though all should be sure to absorb the
beginning and ending chapters to gain an overall perspective.
All of the 23 chapters are 10–12 pages in length. This relative brevity seems to help
authors emphasize the most salient and unique aspects of the situation they are discussing.
Some utilize a case study approach, yet fortunately are able to address and analyze the key
elements of those settings in a manner that avoids giving chapters a sense of repetition,
while still providing a certain degree of continuity and connectedness between each piece.
This approach is more likely to keep readers engaged even if the focus might not be on the
type of entity they function within. As reflected in the book’s title, several chapters

M. Beaudoin (&)
University of New England, Cape Elizabeth, ME, USA
e-mail: mbeaudoin@une.edu

123