Quality Education beyond Borders: An International Content Analysis for Transnational Distance Education

Overview & Synopsis

Due to the forces of globalization, higher education institutions have increased their participation in international partnerships and the flow of academic services and resources across borders. This international academic mobility is known as internationalization, and transnational distance education is an example of an innovative internationalization strategy. Despite the exponential growth and the projected acceleration of transnational distance education enrollment, there is a dearth of knowledge in the measurement and practice of international quality dimensions and learning outcome indicators to support internationalization efforts for transnational distance education. This research utilized content analysis to organize networks of concepts and capture quality indicators from five internationally accepted frameworks to establish a quality dimension typology. Based on preliminary findings, 27 internationalization indicators were identified to support transnational distance education internationalization efforts. Findings support a need for more holistic quality frameworks with greater attention to internationalization quality dimensions to guide successful outcomes across borders.