Educational organization management systems

Since 2013 we have been following developments in an International Organization for Standardization committee: ISO 288 – Educational organizations management systems – Requirements with guidance for use;  a committee spun off from the committee that develops the more widely known ISO 9000-family of quality management standards prepared for industries and global regulatory agencies.  The global Secretariat is South Korea; with 40 participating member nations and 11 observing nations.  It is noteworthy that the US education industry is not a participant in this global standard which will likely have implications for standards setting for all aspects of educational organizations including the management of Massive Open Online Courses which we have covered in previous posts.

Distance learning  presents opportunities involving sustainability and the campus infrastructure. The environmental impacts of providing higher education courses by campus-based versus distance/online learning methods has been researched. A study by the Design Innovation Group, The Open University, UK found that distance learning higher education courses involved 87% less energy and 85% lower CO2 emissions than the full-time campus-based courses. Higher education facility professionals will need to remain cognizant about the changing landscape of higher education and the potential  impact on sustainability and managing the physical environment.

Note that the United States is neither a participating nor an observing country.

Recent developments with ISO 288 include the evolution of the ISO 21001 management system standard to the Draft International Standard stage (news item:https://www.iso.org/news/Ref2174.html) . ISO 21001 is a standard, developed and published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), that defines, establishes, and helps maintaining an effective system for the management of education organizations. It follows the ISO high level structure  for management system standards and is therefore consistent in terms of philosophy, chapters structure and vocabulary with many other ISO management system standards, including ISO 9001:2015 (more information on the ISO high level structure for management system standards: https://www.iso.org/management-system-standards.html). ISO 21001 focuses on the specific interaction between an educational organization, the learner, customers and other relevant interested parties.

The ISO 288 Technical Programme Manager, Stefan Marinkovic, was one of the featured speakers at the American National Standards Institute’s annual Company Member Forum hosted at the University of Michigan on May 10-11th, 2016.  For a review of Mr. Marinkovic’s presentation you may visit this link (Note that the link will take about 1 minute to load):

Streaming recording link

Download recording link

13-100-iso-21001-presentation-by-stefan-m-2016-05-11-mu-iso-and-iso-21001-v-2-1

Seoul National University

Issue: [13-100].  (Note that this project will be integrated into another, more general education management development standard).

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Our next teleconference focused on international standards effecting the education industry is on July 29th. 11 AM Eastern time.  There are about 30 of them.   Feel free to “click in”:

International Standards