Current consultations
At QQI, we recognise the importance of consulting with our stakeholders. We understand that consultation must be open and meaningful and that our approach impacts on the quality of the relationships we build and develop with our stakeholders. We are guided by our consultation framework as we conduct our formal and informal consultations.
QQI is developing statutory quality assurance guidelines for blended and online learning. These guidelines will build upon the current and widely used guidelines for blended learning and will incorporate programmes which are designed for fully online delivery and assessment. This initiative follows on from the emergency transition to online driven by the pandemic. Now that that emergency phase is past, there is an opportunity to build on the learning gained as to what worked well, what didn’t work well etc. This learning can be captured and allied to the more systematically derived learning produced by academic research in Ireland and worldwide.
The National Institute for Digital Learning (NIDL) in DCU made a successful tender to QQI to lead the development of the new guidelines. NIDL, led by Professor Mark Brown, will consult with stakeholders in Ireland and will draw on its own expertise and research into national and international best practice to draft the new QA guidelines. When the development work is complete, the draft guidelines will be published here for comprehensive consultation.
QQI and NIDL recognise the expertise present in Irish higher and further education and training and would welcome all contributions to the development phase. If you have something to say, please use this form to submit your contribution. If you have queries, please use the dedicated email address onlineguidelines@qqi.ie to send them to us.
Please visit this page regularly for updates.
In Ireland and around the world, people use qualifications for many different social, economic and cultural reasons.
Sometimes we take qualifications for granted and we overlook the human and material aspects that support them to ensure qualifications are relevant and trustworthy.
This Green Paper is a discussion paper. It outlines the Irish qualifications system and includes some broad questions on possible opportunities for improvements. There is also a companion Technical Paper which contains more detail.
QQI hopes to use the Green Paper to begin a discussion about Ireland’s qualifications system. We believe this is a very important time to focus on how the system is performing. We would like to discuss this with all the different types of people who use qualifications. They include learners, employers, parents, practitioners, occupational associations and professions, providers and their staff, regulators, trade unions, the international community and others either directly or through representative bodies.