Seeing COL’s Technology-Enabled Learning Benchmarks in the Light Provided by the ACODE Benchmarking Process

Since 2014 the Australasian Council for Open Distance and eLearning (ACODE) have been holding biennial inter-institutional benchmarking summits for those higher education institutions wishing to benchmark their capacity in technology enhanced learning. Over this time the evidence has been mounting as to the longer term benefits for many of the institutions undertaking this activity. For those who have regularly applied this tool, it can be demonstrated that there have been improvements in particular areas of their practice. In the light of this, and now that the Commonwealth of Learning have developed their own Benchmarks for technologyenabled learning, it is worth understanding how this tool can be applied by institutions, so that similar or, if one might be bold enough to suggest, better results may be afforded. This paper will compare the two tools
and the methodologies adopted and provide suggestions based on the lessons learned from over 40 institutions in Australasia. It will report on the three ACODE Benchmarking activities that have occurred since 2014 in Australia and provide a longitudinal view of the key features and outcomes of these activities. In conclusion this paper will challenge institutions to take seriously their mandate to provide their students with learning environments that meet the highest possible quality, particularly now in a higher education setting that will come under increased scrutiny by regulatory bodies. More importantly, it will reflect on what the potential implications are for institutions in moderating their learning management and associated systems.