Articles of Interest

These are the articles I will summarise and use as a resource framework for my evaluation project.

Elgort, I., Smith, A. G. & Toland, J. (2008). Is wiki an effective platform for group course work? Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 24(2), 195-210.

Evaluation Cookbook

evaluation of ipods at duke university

A Virtual Laboratory Structure for Developing Programming Labs, Josep Prieto-Blazquez, Jordi Herrera-Joancomarti, Ana-Elena Guerrero-Roldán

TENTube: A Video-based Connection Tool Supporting Competence Development
Albert A. Angehrn and Katrina Maxwell INSEAD / Centre for Advanced Learning Technologies (CALT), Fontainebleau, France

Quality Matters Rubric Standards 2008-2010 edition with Assigned Point Values

Criteria for Evaluating the Quality of Online Courses Clayton R. Wright


The eLearning Guild : eBook - Tips - Online Instruction

eLearning Guidebook

The eLearning guidebook describes some types of evaluation to improve course deployment. I think, due to the stage of deployment we are at with our course, the front-end analysis is the best method. Says the guidebook:

Carrying out such surveys periodically and especially prior to the full roll-out of e-learning will enable your organization to get a better handle on how to align its services to meet the needs of prospective users

Not only will this front-end analysis help us get it right for learners, it will give us a benchmark and parameters to do any other of the methods of evaluation, a comparison stick.

Types of Evaluation Models

I would agree with Tom Reeves that teachers, and more specifically instructional designers are not really interested in evaluation for the purpose of understanding the deepest rules of life, the universe or the meaning of life. I do agree also that teachers are problem-solvers, solution-focused and wholly interested in doing stuff better to ensure student learn better. Of the approaches described by Reeves and Hegarty, I prefer a mixed model, going for what ever is efficient and effective. I actually prefer surveys compared between what people say they did, what other people observe happened and what the data says. This helps to make clear the difference or consistency between how the student sees what they did, and how they did it. This understanding can feed into modifying the resources they receive in future, the guidance provided, the expectations given to them, the committments made by them...