Gail Weatherly
Lesson 11
COMM 5350

Thoughts on Distance Educational System Evaluation

I see evaluation of distance education at two levels. First, there is the evaluation of distance education as a valid delivery method and source of educational credit. In Texas, courses and programs are accredited through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) oversees and approves courses and programs that are offered. Second, each course is evaluated by students concerning the instructor, technological components, structure of the course, and so on.

Accreditation of the Program or Institution

It is important that the accrediting body be recognized by the U.S. Department of Education (http://www.ed.gov/) or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (http://www.chea.org/). Accreditation is the number one indicator of quality in a distance education course, program, or institution.

The admissions policy of a distance learning institution or program is also an indicator of quality. Beware of programs with few restrictions or those that award too much "work experience" credit.

Ascertain, if possible, the longevity of the program and what level of expertise the school has in dealing with distance education. It is important to know the support structure within the university for distance education. Does the university offer the same student services to distant students?

It is beneficial, also, to know how a degree from this institution will be regarded in your profession. Another factor of importance is the level of interactivity that will be used in the course. Emailing an instructor with questions about the course before you enroll will provide you with information about how prompt the instructor will be in communicating.

Evaluation of a Distance Education Course or Program
Once admitted to an accredited program or course, the next level of evaluation will come upon completion. Usually, evaluation involves questions about the instructor's correct or incorrect handling of the course content, student interaction, student learning styles, clarity of course goals and objectives, ease of navigation in the course, accessibility of materials, and support of collaborative learning.

Some universities and faculty members have policies regarding on-campus, face-to-face course evaluation that spill over into the evaluation of distance education. Many times, policies are not revised to clarify how evaluation of the instructor, student services, course content, and technical components of the distance education course are to be handled.

In the light of extreme sensitivity about such issues, trying to usher in change in this area can become a challenge for instructional technology administrators. The University of Texas TeleCampus recently shared their novel approach and solution to this problem during the Texas Distance Learning Conference in Houston.

Programmers developed a survey which deals with both questions about the instructor as well as questions that might be used by those in instructional technology to improve the delivery of the course. Due to some ingenious programming, when a student clicks "submit," responses that deal with the instructor go directly to the appropriate department while responses dealing with technical issues go to the instructional technology support department.

This kind of online solution to the sensitive problem of evaluation is desirable because it allows a short, easy-to-use survey to be made available to students while at the same time preserving anonymity and confidentiality.

It will remain a challenge to convince faculty, department chairs, and deans to adopt new technologies for evaluating online instruction - a task that is often more difficult than recruiting support of delivering the instruction online.