Hello everyone, 
time for another post!

Our next session is about evaluating online courses.
Before you can develop your online course you have to plan a systematic approach in which the first step is a needs assessment. A needs assessment may be as formal as a written survey delivered to hundreds, or as informal as a series of interviews. Guiding questions for planning any assessment

• Why is the assessment undertaken?

Is the focus student or faculty experience? Is it the design of the course? Is it the delivery?

What will change?

• What outcomes are being assessed? At what level?

• When should the assessment take place?

• Where and how should the assessment take place?

• Who should be involved? 
The answers you gain will set the stage for the rest of your course, and will be useful in everything from design to implementation to marketing. 

The following guiding questions taken from Criteria for Evaluating the Quality of Online Courses can also be used for evaluating your course design. 
General Information
At the beginning of the course, are learners provided with general information that will
assist them in completing the course and in understanding its objectives and

procedures?

AccessibilityHow accessible is the course material? Can learners find information quickly?Has the instructor ensured that the infrastructure and server can handle the number oflearners enrolled in the course?OrganizationIs the material organized in such a manner that learners can discern relationshipsbetween parts of the course?LanguageIs the level of the language used appropriate for the intended audience?Has the course material been edited for grammar, language, and content verification?LayoutDoes the layout facilitate learning? Is the material attractive and appropriate for thecourse content and the intended audience? Note that it may be impossible to design apage that is displayed in the same manner on every computer screen; if the equipmentand software available to the learners are unknown, a simple layout is best.Goals and ObjectivesAre goals and objectives provided to outline learning expectations at the beginning of thecourse and, where appropriate, at the beginning of each module? If you are using aconstructivist approach, you may ask your learners to select their own goals, objectives,content, learning strategies, resources, and evaluation scheme.Course ContentIs the content appropriate, given the subject matter and the learners’ backgrounds andabilities? If you are using a constructivist approach to your online course, you may wantto substitute the term “learning experiences” for the word ”content” below.Are all quoted materials cited correctly? Has permission to use copyrighted materialbeen obtained?Was the course reviewed by a second content expert?Instructional or Learning Strategies and Opportunities for Practice and TransferDo the instructional or learning strategies enable learners to learn effectively in a varietyof ways and to engage in activities that promote practice and the transfer of skills?Is the instructor primarily a facilitator of learning, rather than a provider of content?Learning ResourcesAre the learning resources accessible, appropriate, and accurate?EvaluationDesign the evaluation at the same time the program is being designed. Are the evaluative activities feasible, relevant, accurate, and congruent with theobjectives, content, and practical applications of the content? Two types of evaluation used in distance education are called Formative and Summative. Formative evaluation is done while the program is being developed. A formative evaluation can help you make positive changes to your program while it's taking place or even before it's delivered. It is also used during instruction to see how participants are progressing toward objectives.

Summative evaluation occurs at the end of a program and measures program results, effectiveness and impact. The summative evaluation can be about the learning, the process, the methodology or any other aspect you wish to measure.

Overall• Is there evidence that the course has been piloted and that learners can achievethe objectives of the course?• Has the course been reviewed by experts in content and design?• Is the course up-to-date – current in both content and technical aspects? Whenwas it last revised and the URLs updated?• If the course will be used by instructors who did not participate in itsdevelopment, can the course be modified? If so, what permission is neededbefore this modification can occur?


I'd like to share the following links with you:

Criteria for Evaluating the Quality of Online Courses (Clayton R. Wright, Grant MacEwan College, Edmonton, Alberta).
Guidelines for course developers or those evaluating the effectiveness of online courses.
http://elearning.typepad.com/thelearnedman/ID/evaluatingcourses.pdf

Evaluating online courses

http://fod.msu.edu/oir/evaluating-online-courses

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