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An essential step in the instructional design process and the ADDIE specifically, is the evaluation processes that results in the improvement of the course which leads to an ever revolving cycle of analysis, development, design and evaluation. As a designer, one of your roles may be to guide instructors with implementing a means of evaluation for needed improvements to their courses. The majority of this chapter is written from the perspective of the instructor rather than the designer, and how they can implement formative and summative evaluations into their courses for improvement of the instruction and ultimately see a positive effect in the learning outcomes and learning experiences of their students.
Learning Objectives
- Identify ways of collecting data and indirect feedback from peers and students about online teaching effective, before, during, and after the course.
- Describe how to use this feedback to make changes to your online course, or course environment, both during the course, and for future offerings.
Why is Evaluation Important?
For the instructor, evaluation is an important component of the tenure and promotion process where the instructor must provide evidence their teaching has been successful. For the instructional designer, it provides evidence that the course design & instruction has been conducted appropriately resulting in effective learning outcomes. New tools and new approaches to teaching are constantly coming available. They provide the opportunity to experiment a little to see if the results are better, and if we do that, we need to evaluate the impact of using a new tool or course design. As mentioned in the preceding section of this text, the main reason is that teaching is like golf: we strive for perfection but can never achieve it. It’s always possible to improve instruction and learning, and one of the best ways of doing that is through a systematic analysis of past experience.
Teaching Effectiveness
Teaching effectiveness describes instructors’ ability to affect student success. It is usually defined according to several factors, such as how well instructors organize courses, how well they know the course material, how clearly they communicate with students, how frequently they provide timely feedback, and other criteria. In the classroom, effectiveness sometimes depends on the instructor’s enthusiasm or disposition. During fully online and blended learning courses, students often need more structure and support to succeed because their course activities usually require them to take greater responsibility for their own learning success. Therefore, many of the criteria take on even more importance when evaluating online teaching effectiveness. Online teaching is often held to higher standards than classroom teaching, and sometimes these standards have nothing to do with the teacher’s ability. For example, a technological breakdown can have a negative impact on students’ evaluation of an instructor’s work,