MEASURING THE EFFECT OF CREDIT-MODULE-BASED QUALITY MANAGEMENT: A THREE-DIMENSIONAL «3Q» APPROACH TO EVALUATING EDUCATIONAL CHANGE

Studies of quality management in higher education commonly report effect size along a single dimension — the average level of achievement reached. This paper argues that a single-dimension report conceals two managerially decisive properties of an educational change: how many students it reaches and how fast the change accumulates. A three-dimensional evaluation framework, termed here the «3Q» approach (Quality, Quantity, Quickness), is proposed and tested. A three-year quasi-experimental study (2021–2024) was conducted at three higher education institutions in Uzbekistan with 375 undergraduate students (195 experimental, 180 control) in the Economics field of study. Readiness for education quality management was measured across four criteria — motivational, emotional, informational and process-activity — each operationalised through six indicators on a three-point scale and converted into a level index ranging from 1 to 3. The experimental factor was a bundle of five pedagogical conditions built on module passports, criterion-referenced rubrics, hybrid-form selection driven by a motivational-emotional parameter, and threshold-triggered monitoring. Baseline equivalence was confirmed (between-group index differences ≤ 0.006). Post-test differences were statistically significant for every criterion at every institution (Student's t, p < 0.05). The three «3Q» components diverged sharply: Quality differed by a factor of 1.34, Quantity by 6.1 and Quickness by 6.0. The divergence is the central finding — reporting Quality alone would have described the intervention as moderate, whereas the coverage and rate dimensions show its actual scale. Growth was consistent across the three institutions (0.560–0.619), which supports transferability. Limitations and directions for further research are discussed.