network accreditation: a distributed accreditation system for lifelong learning

Continuing education involves learning activities that are usually carried out after traditionally regulated training. A growth of educational offer has spread throughout the world in the form of courses, diplomas, degrees and other types of study programs. Despite the increasing importance and the offer of continuing education programs, accreditation processes have been restricted to traditional formal education. Accreditation processes are characterized by a centralized accreditation system led by a national government authority. However, this type of accreditation is difficult to effectively implement in continuing education programs. In this contribution, we present and analyze a network accreditation system (SAR) designed to accredit the quality of continuing education programs. This accreditation system contrasts with the existing "centralized" systems, because it is a "distributed" system, inspired by the system by which the international scientific community validates research articles, i.e. the "peer review". In this work we describe this system, we analyze its theoretical foundations, its potential advantages and disadvantages, and the experiences of its application in a first prototype.