The use of technology has never been more widely spread in universities than today. The increase use of open educational tools and concepts, social media and mobile learning, encourages Higher Education (HE) institutions to give firm steps towards ubiquitous learning spaces. New national and European educational directives are set up to give each year more and more emphasis to online education and provision by helping to bridge the gap between learners and between HE and society in general. Different studies however have made the argument that the use of technology by itself does not lead to better learning and in fact can drive to disruptive, unprepared and ineffective practices (Blin & Munro, 2008). In fact as the distance between the learner and the instructor increases, the greater is the chance of increased dissatisfaction, failure and dropout (Levy, 2007; Park & Choi, 2009). Hence there is not a direct link between quality learning and teaching and the use of technology.

A recent study from Hattie (2009) which aims to identify the variables that influence success in the learning process in the different educational levels, in the US context, suggests that e-Learning is considered by the students as not to being a relevant variable in the promotion of better learning experiences. The findings from Hattie’s study suggest that e-Learning is not usually perceived by the instructor and by the student as being aligned with the teaching practice but as something additional to the learning environment, an add-on (Liaw, Huang, & Chen, 2007). Goodyear, et al. (2001) alerted us, back in 2001, that academics need to become different teachers, with different pedagogical competencies if they want to be effective in their e-Learning strategies. This argument is also supported by different authors who perceive the importance of engagement and active learning when using technology for promoting learning (Hannafin, Hannafin, & Gabbitas, 2009; Oliver, 2008). Without a commitment from academics to actively engage and support students, technology does not serve the purpose of learning enhancement and consequently it becomes just another way of delivering content and information.

It is therefore important to unpack the meaning of an active use of e-learning. One meaning that derives us to a pedagogical oriented view of technology which is active and student-oriented and that in fact promotes a better learning experience to the students. This drives the construction of the research questions that oriented the development of this study: What is quality in active e-Learning in Higher Education and how can we defined it?  The study objectives are: (i) to identify what is active e-Learning, (ii) to identity what is perceived as quality in active e-Learning by the sector and (iii) what standards can be drawn from the triangulation between theoretical frameworks and an empirical qualitative study.

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