E-Learning Benchmarking in Higher Education: Methodology Literature Review

Rapid advancements in technology and the Internet have encouraged the use of e-learning practices in many countries for training professionals in higher education. E-learning systems provide a link between instructional content and other learning activities offering digital tools and better services to facilitate learning. Within this context, e-learning quality assurance has become extremely vital for higher education institutions (HEIs) in terms of student retention and satisfaction. Based on twenty-two recent studies, this paper reviews, analyzes and synthesizes the existing literature with the aim to improve e-learning quality and identify the standards, criteria and benchmarks for e-learning systems and their evaluation. Results show that the studies were distinct majorly in terms of the research methods used for e-learning benchmarking and e-learning evaluation. Eight out of twenty-two studies focused on comprehensive framework and benchmarking indicators, while four studies provided theoretical and conceptual analysis. It was also found that three studies introduced the results of benchmarking e-learning case studies and studied conceptual models for evaluating e-learning and two studies presented evaluation criteria and the factors for e-learning evaluation. The authors provided a comparison of methodological approaches of these studies and also explored how benchmarking e-learning can be implemented for quality assurance in theory and practice.