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A framework for evaluating online courses.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

Evaluating online courses has been an issue discussed in much of the contemporary literature related to distance education. Educators, administrators and students alike are concerned about the overall quality of distance education courses, when compared to traditional or face-to-face instruction. Using Berge and Meyers (2000) as a foundation, a framework for an evaluation process of online course quality is developed and explained.

Introduction

While many acknowledge the importance of evaluating online courses, most have not fully discussed the mechanisms for completing or conducting such a review (Hosie & Schibeci, 2001; Sunwalkar, 2002). Much of the current direction concerning evaluation of online education appears to embrace the role or importance of technology integrated within education. There are many current examples of evaluating the effectiveness of technology within an educational unit (Cann, 1999; "How do we know it works?" 2001). These methodologies only address the utilization of technology and the presentation of education within the technological medium. While this is a laudable undertaking, it does not measure or begin to evaluate the overall effectiveness of the online learning environment. Based on the increasing use of online courses both within higher education, and within industry, a clearly defined standard or framework should be developed that provides a methodology to evaluate online courses as educational lessons or modules in a summative fashion.

Donald Kirkpatrick (1998) outlined four levels of evaluation, two of which seem particularly appropriate to online learning. Level 1 "measures how those who participate in the program react to it" (Kirkpatrick, 1998, p. 19) and level 2 measures the "participant change [in or of] attitudes, improve [d] knowledge, and/or increase [d] skill as a result of attending the program" (Kirkpatrick, 1998, p. 20). Though not specific to distance education in terms of, training development, or instructional design, Kirkpatrick's level 1 and level 2 evaluations hold the greatest possible measure for online learning.

Evaluation within Online Education

Online education is still an emerging field, and there are as many different schools of thought concerning its design and development, as there are so-called standards based online course environments. From the instructional design models of Dick and Carey (1996), to Gagne, Briggs, and Wager (1988), to Smith and Ragan (1999), and others mentioned in Gustafson and Branch (2002), Gustafson and Branch (2002) have classified these models into broad categories: classroom-oriented models, product-oriented models, and systems-oriented models. Yet, one thing that all have in common, sometimes explicitly mentioned such as the procedural evaluation methodologies in the models of Dick and Carey (1996), or Gagne, Briggs, and Wager (1988)), and often times implicitly mentioned such as the conceptual evaluation methodologies mentioned in Smith and...

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