ABSTRACT
As the world’s largest continent, comprising 50 or so nations, Asia has great diversity in its peoples, traditions, cultures, languages, governmental systems and legislative and regulatory environments. Its educational systems, policy frameworks and practices are correspondingly diverse, as are its QA policies and procedures and applications of ODL in basic, technical and vocational, higher and non-formal education. There is some evidence, however, that globalization and technology are bringing Asian governments and ODL providers closer in regard to administering QA and promoting a culture of quality. This chapter examines QA policies and practices in Asian ODL. It concludes that QA in Asia should acknowledge the uniqueness of ODL, focus more on outcomes and pay greater attention to quality in open schooling and NFE.
