Class is almost over, and this is my last blog entry for this trimester. I decided to write this post about evaluation of online courses. I chose the evaluation process because personally, evaluation was the most important concept in my journey through the design course. As I learned how to evaluated online courses, I saw my course from another perspective. I feel certain that this skill will change the way I design and teach online courses.When I look at courses, I check to see if they include information regarding learner support, and links to campus and technology resources. In addition, I look for access to a wide variety of resources to support the course content and different learning styles. Courses that provide visual, textual, kinesthetic and auditory activities enhance student learning.
Other areas I consider are whether the syllabus is clear, the site well organized, the links maintained and the pages are consistent in style. The pages should be aesthetically pleasing, easy to read and navigation should be logical and intuitive. In addition, the design of the course should offer ample opportunities for student interactions. Exemplary courses offer student-student, student-content, and student-instructor interactive activities.
Learning objectives should be clearly stated, and appropriate for student academic level. All course readings, assignments, discussions and assessments should align with the objectives. Effort should be made to offer activities that help students develop problem solving and critical thinking skills.
The course should have multiple ongoing assessments that measure knowledge of course content, and skills. Adding formative, summative and authentic assessment enhances online courses. Because feedback is so important to the facilitation of online courses, regular feedback of student performance should be planned in the design. Student self assessments and peer feedback assignments can make a course more effective.
There is an opportunity to add a variety of technology tools and applications to a course that can increase communication and learning. Provided the core content is established, these additions can be very effective. As in a face to face class, any activity engages students will make content more relevant to students.
Several articles on course evaluation I found were interesting.
This link provides an easy to follow checklist that covers many areas of online course evaluation. http://opi.mt.gov/pdf/advplacement/OLC_Checklist.pdf
This article offers a concise article about online evaluation.
http://www.fastrak-consulting.co.uk/tactix/Features/evaluate/evaluate.htm
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