Is Assurance of Learning going as it should? A text mining-based review of literature

Abstract

Guaranteeing quality in Higher Education in today’s globalized and uncertain context strains universities worldwide. Assurance of Learning (AoL) and Curricular Alignment (CA) are some of intimately related key concepts embedded in this situation. Albeit being pervasive in today’s complex Higher Education ecosystem, AoL is not understood the same way everywhere. In order to explore its related meanings a scholarly literature analysis was carried out using text-mining techniques on 576,180 terms of 167 peer reviewed articles. Results reveals that research on AoL/CA is focusing on accreditation-oriented operationalization of assessment rather than synergically synchronizing the Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) with teaching and assessment as it should be. Evidence shows that AACSB accreditation guidelines have the heaviest impact on AoL/CA research which entails that a single point of view is globally driving what should otherwise be a dialogue in a diverse international academic ecosystem.