A new standardisation and certification initiative in e-learning — The qualification standard “Certified European E-Tutor”

In almost all educational fields methods and tools of e-learning have become widespread in all European countries in the last two decades. However, there are still relevant differences in terms of the extent and quality of their implementation and the dedicated qualification of teachers and trainers. Especially in the field of vocational education and training (VET) the quality of e-learning varies widely at European level as surveys by CEDEFOP, the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, reveal. An important lever to promote the use of e-learning in VET and to improve its quality is the targeted and systematic training of teachers and trainers according to uniform quality standards. This is the main goal of the project “Certified European E-Tutor” (CET) funded by the European Commission. The project defines a comprehensive quality standard for the further education of VET teachers and trainers to becoming “e-tutors” and introduces a certification procedure which supports the validation and recognition of e-learning qualifications in a transparent way at European level. This paper will describe the background of the project and discuss the state of the art in research on e-learning quality standards and reference frameworks. It then presents the project's goals and results, especially the specification of the quality standard for e-tutors. The paper finishes with information on the project impact.