Guide to digital resource development
- You are here: Home
- For jurisdictions
- Resource development process
- Guide to digital resource development
- Quality assurance
Quality assurance
Print page 
Email page
In general terms, quality assurance, or a quality management system, is a method of ensuring a consistent standard of deliverables. A quality assurance process is at the heart of producing a professional and consistent product or service.
The following guide describes in more detail how our quality assurance process works.
To ensure the integrity, accuracy and authenticity of digital resources we maintain a quality assurance framework that encompasses four key areas:
- educational;
- editorial;
- technical;
- intellectual property management.
Our overall aim is to provide teachers and students with resources that are educationally useful, that can be correctly viewed on school and home computers, and that have been cleared for educational use.
Because the resources are digital we aim to meet expectations that:
- image and audio quality are of a consistently high standard;
- links and other functionality within the resource operate smoothly;
- standards of access, delivery and search functions for users are the best possible.
Because the resources are educational publications:
- users expect excellence in the level of educational soundness;
- text needs to be well expressed and easy to comprehend;
- we provide best-practice intellectual property management and clearly communicate acknowledgements and conditions of use to users.
Each digital resource undergoes a rigorous educational quality assurance process to ensure that it is relevant to teachers, identifies important contextual information, and is factually accurate.
Educational quality assurance
At the early stages of digital resource creation, a curriculum expert is involved in selecting items. Considerations include:
- whether the item provides an 'opportunity to learn' from the Australian Statements of Learning for English, Mathematics, Science, ICT or Civics and citizenship;
- whether the item links with the syllabuses or curriculum frameworks of one or more of the Australian states or territories;
- whether the item links with the New Zealand national curriculum;
- whether the item links with any of the priority areas (for example, Indigenous education) endorsed by Ministers in the Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs.
The curriculum expert also provides notes for writers and researchers, advising them of the reasons that the item was selected and the curriculum areas that are most relevant to the item.
Reviewing resources to ensure educational soundness
After the writer has completed their first draft of a description and educational value statement to accompany an item, the manuscript is reviewed to ensure that the research is educationally relevant, rigorous and factually accurate.
Reviewing by curators
Many resources are also reviewed by curators at the institution from which the item was sourced. The curators offer specialised knowledge of the item and are often able to provide answers to queries that others in the process are unable to resolve.
Editorial quality assurance
Our goal is to create resources that provide positive teaching and learning experiences. To achieve this, each digital resource is meticulously edited so that it is easy to read, clear, conforms to the required style and format and includes the relevant and correct intellectual property information.
Principles behind the digital resources style
This guide explains how the digital resources style is used to achieve a high-standard resource that is useful for teachers.
Digital resources style guide
This guide is divided into three sections, outlining The Le@rning Federation standards for three aspects of digital resources style: the structure of the resources, a consistent approach within various areas of content, and TLF copyedit house style. Overall, the guide provides support for creating resources of the high quality demanded by TLF standards.
Technical quality assurance
To ensure that each resource can be used on school and home computers across Australia and New Zealand, TLF has worked with education authorities to develop technical specifications for our resources. The specifications include parameters for different types of media; in-house digitisation; and accessibility profiles.
Additionally, to ensure that the final product is of a high technical standard, each resource must pass quality assurance testing before it is published. The testing requires that the resource operate correctly across operating systems and browsers as outlined in 'Technical specification for content development' (linked below).
The following documents describe the technical and accessibility specifications for TLF content.
Technical specification for content development
This guide outlines internationally accepted specifications for digital content. As a quality assurance document, it ensures content is of a consistent type and style to retain viability, integrity and portability through the life of the project and beyond.
Accessibility specification for content development
This guide describes accessibility principles, requirements and guidelines for creating accessible online curriculum content. The aim is to maximise learning opportunities for students and to meet the needs of users with varying capabilities and individual learning differences.