Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
Warren H. Groff
Committee Member
Stan Hannah
Committee Member
Maryellen Maher
Keywords
assessment, assessment rubrics, best practices, CCO, communication, conformity, course evaluation, course objectives, criteria, Crown College Online, curriculum development committee, developmental problem-solving methodology, director, distance education, distance education staff, diverse evaluation programs, evaluative tool, evaluation, evaluation process, feedback, format and design, governance, guide, implementation plan, learning outcomes, online courses, online teaching methods, ongoing research, organizational learning, practices, publish report, recommendations, recurring practices, research questions, sister schools, stakeholders, student satisfaction surveys, teaching methods, timeline, training, training workshops, usable evaluation tool design
Abstract
At Crown College Online (CCO), courses have been evaluated for the past four years with student satisfaction surveys only. This provided very limited assessment of how the courses were meeting the institutions learning outcomes. This project developed the following products: (a) three rubrics for evaluating online courses, (b) an evaluative tool in the form of a guide, and (c) an implementation plan with timeline.
There were five research questions addressed in this study: (a) criteria for evaluating online courses, (b) criteria for evaluating course objectives, (c) criteria for evaluating teaching method online, (d) format and design of an online evaluation tool, and (e) an implementation plan for the evaluation process. This study used the developmental problem-solving methodology to create an evaluative tool. There were twelve procedures used in the study to address the research questions.
Results indicated that although there were many diverse evaluation programs available, there was little semblance of conformity between them; however there were several recurring practices that were beneficial when analyzed. This project gathered the best practices from a large number of online evaluation programs. There were five conclusions identified by this study: (a) four criteria for online course evaluation, (b) three criteria for measuring online course objectives, (c) four criteria for evaluating online teaching methods, (d) a usable evaluation tool design, and (e) an appropriate implementation plan.
The following seven recommendations were suggested by the project: (a) training the distance education staff, (b) a system of governance be organized by the director of distance education, (c) curriculum development committee adopt the new guide, (d) publish the report online for communication to stakeholders, (e) setup training workshops online and share with sister schools, (f) promote ongoing research as field is changing rapidly, and (g) share report with and workshops with other schools for their feedback and assessment.