Teaching Innovation in Andalusia: Professionalization through Reward Policies and Database Management

Abstract

Innovation in teaching is one dimension of the many that are shaping higher education nowadays and is part of the changes taking place in European universities at present. There is keen interest among Andalusian universities to promote teaching innovations, and they have requested from the Andalusian Agency for QA in HE and Research in Andalusia (AGAE) support for their educational innovation processes. AGAE believes that its functions should not be limited to assist in external evaluations, but should contribute to a better environment for innovation and change in universities in any way that is deemed possible. In this spirit AGAE organized the First Andalusian Conference on Teaching Innovation. The first part of this paper discusses the competencies and skills AGAE’s staff acquired to ensure this extra effort was done effectively. It argues that the professionalization of QA and a positive public perception of AGAE’s achievements have forced the agency to keep internal management and development systems in place. The second part centers on AGAE’s contribution to the professional organization of QA. Two strategies are examined: granting of prizes and information management through database. We propose that a reward policy is useful to the professional apparatus of Quality credentialing and that databases may also serve as credentials.