A Quality Management Approach to Reduce Risks in an eLearning Program

The paper presents a project carried out by the Faculty of Science of Palermo University and the Institute for Educational Technologies of the Italian National Research Council regarding the realization of an eLearning BSc degree course "Science and Technologies for the Environment and Tourism". This one of the first on line university degree courses in which we have applied a project management approach and quality assurance theory in order to guarantee a planned and systematic control of the processes involved in the production of an eLearning solution.In particular we will present the phases of the project from its conception to its implementation describing the structure of the BSc degree course, identifying the different processes involved, highlighting the roles of teaching, technical and dministrative staff; we explain how we have broken down each phase into different activities and how for each activity we have identified teams, roles and responsibilities in order to produce effective management of the project. We will show some process description schemas for monitoring and mproving the quality of decision making and the management of the complex organizational, technological, and methodological aspects involved in the eLearning project.