Ontology-based conceptual model for quality assurance in higher education

Quality in higher education is a complex, controversial and continuously evolving area of research. The concept of quality assurance (QA) emerged and is widely used nowadays within a range of processes of managing quality in higher education. A review of a number of existing standards of QA revealed...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Ali, Sedig Ahmed Babikir
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2019
Subjects:	QA75 Electronic computers Computer science
Online Access:	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/96199/1/SedigAhmedBabikirPSC2019.pdf.pdf
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

id	my-utm-ep.96199
record_format	uketd_dc
spelling	my-utm-ep.961992022-07-04T08:43:34Z Ontology-based conceptual model for quality assurance in higher education 2019 Ali, Sedig Ahmed Babikir QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science Quality in higher education is a complex, controversial and continuously evolving area of research. The concept of quality assurance (QA) emerged and is widely used nowadays within a range of processes of managing quality in higher education. A review of a number of existing standards of QA revealed many research gaps such as structure variations, lack of shared knowledge and understanding, lack of standardized use of terminology and the lack of practical and semantic support and guidelines on developing conceptual models of quality assurance in higher education. The Design Science (DS) approach in Information Systems discipline provides clear guidelines for designing, developing, demonstrating and evaluating novel solutions for defined problems with the aim of extending the boundaries of human and organizational capabilities by producing new, advanced and original artifacts. Therefore, to address the highlighted gaps, this research adopts the design science research methodology (DSRM) provided by Peffers (2008) comprising a sequence of six activities: (1) Problem Identification and Motivation, (2) Definition of the Objectives of a Solution, (3) Design and Development, (4) Demonstration, (5) Evaluation, and (6) Communication. This thesis demonstrates the applicability and usefulness of domain models with the phenomenon of quality in the higher education domain to support shared understanding, communication, and domain learning and problem-solving by introducing a universal approach to the domain of quality assurance. The ontology-based conceptual model for quality assurance (OntoQA), which is the main artifact delivered by this research, has been developed to faithfully capture the domain of quality assurance of academic programmes. OntoQA covers its domain to the extent required by intended usage, providing a reference ontology to facilitate design, development, monitoring, evaluation and improvement of quality academic programmes, and to assist in designing quality assurance systems. This research has introduced OntoQA as a new approach to designing, developing, monitoring and evaluating quality academic programmes, as well as the design and development of quality assurance systems. Quality assurance in higher education is a community-based process which requires consensus between stakeholders, therefore, OntoQA enhances communications, and facilitates streamlined collaboration on joint goals. Using OntoQA and getting familiar with the idea of conceptualising quality assurance in higher education facilitates tool developers, which would potentially help higher education providers to integrate quality when designing new programmes, or while reviewing and improving existing ones in conformance with international standards. 2019 Thesis http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/96199/ http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/96199/1/SedigAhmedBabikirPSC2019.pdf.pdf application/pdf en public http://dms.library.utm.my:8080/vital/access/manager/Repository/vital:143642 phd doctoral Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Faculty of Engineering - School of Computing
institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
collection	UTM Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	QA75 Electronic computers Computer science
spellingShingle	QA75 Electronic computers Computer science Ali, Sedig Ahmed Babikir Ontology-based conceptual model for quality assurance in higher education
description	Quality in higher education is a complex, controversial and continuously evolving area of research. The concept of quality assurance (QA) emerged and is widely used nowadays within a range of processes of managing quality in higher education. A review of a number of existing standards of QA revealed many research gaps such as structure variations, lack of shared knowledge and understanding, lack of standardized use of terminology and the lack of practical and semantic support and guidelines on developing conceptual models of quality assurance in higher education. The Design Science (DS) approach in Information Systems discipline provides clear guidelines for designing, developing, demonstrating and evaluating novel solutions for defined problems with the aim of extending the boundaries of human and organizational capabilities by producing new, advanced and original artifacts. Therefore, to address the highlighted gaps, this research adopts the design science research methodology (DSRM) provided by Peffers (2008) comprising a sequence of six activities: (1) Problem Identification and Motivation, (2) Definition of the Objectives of a Solution, (3) Design and Development, (4) Demonstration, (5) Evaluation, and (6) Communication. This thesis demonstrates the applicability and usefulness of domain models with the phenomenon of quality in the higher education domain to support shared understanding, communication, and domain learning and problem-solving by introducing a universal approach to the domain of quality assurance. The ontology-based conceptual model for quality assurance (OntoQA), which is the main artifact delivered by this research, has been developed to faithfully capture the domain of quality assurance of academic programmes. OntoQA covers its domain to the extent required by intended usage, providing a reference ontology to facilitate design, development, monitoring, evaluation and improvement of quality academic programmes, and to assist in designing quality assurance systems. This research has introduced OntoQA as a new approach to designing, developing, monitoring and evaluating quality academic programmes, as well as the design and development of quality assurance systems. Quality assurance in higher education is a community-based process which requires consensus between stakeholders, therefore, OntoQA enhances communications, and facilitates streamlined collaboration on joint goals. Using OntoQA and getting familiar with the idea of conceptualising quality assurance in higher education facilitates tool developers, which would potentially help higher education providers to integrate quality when designing new programmes, or while reviewing and improving existing ones in conformance with international standards.
format	Thesis
qualification_name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.)
qualification_level	Doctorate
author	Ali, Sedig Ahmed Babikir
author_facet	Ali, Sedig Ahmed Babikir
author_sort	Ali, Sedig Ahmed Babikir
title	Ontology-based conceptual model for quality assurance in higher education
title_short	Ontology-based conceptual model for quality assurance in higher education
title_full	Ontology-based conceptual model for quality assurance in higher education
title_fullStr	Ontology-based conceptual model for quality assurance in higher education
title_full_unstemmed	Ontology-based conceptual model for quality assurance in higher education
title_sort	ontology-based conceptual model for quality assurance in higher education
granting_institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
granting_department	Faculty of Engineering - School of Computing
publishDate	2019
url	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/96199/1/SedigAhmedBabikirPSC2019.pdf.pdf
_version_	1747818647034789888

Ontology-based conceptual model for quality assurance in higher education

Similar Items