Distance Learning Case Study Discussion – Module 12

As most of us who have taken an online LTU course know, the university commonly deploys pre, mid, and post experience electronic surveys to assess the quality of their online instruction efforts. While I can see the value in this sort of standardized surveys, I don’t believe they serve to truly measure LTU’s program effectiveness.

Why – because they don't measure course effectiveness – they simply measure course experience.

For example, the evaluations ask simple questions like “did we (the student) feel the learning experience was effective, or do we believe that the materials were useful? These questions are almost always answered on a scale of 1-5. Questions like these merely provide a plug and play input for students, and a mush of data for instructors. The question is, just how actionable is that mush? Does it serve LTU’s primary audiences for these surveys (students, instructors, and staff) well?

The answer is no. The fact is, these surveys don't allow the institution or the instructor to see that the student actually took anything of value away from the experience – they don't test the “theory or practice” motto that the school supposedly staunchly supports.

Now – some of you might argue, “That's what finals are for…”

The problem with that argument though, is that finals are bias – they can be created by the instructor to be exceptionally easy, insanely difficult, or just plain off topic – at the same time, they can be manipulated to serve an instructors interests, or curved to improve percentages.

These palpable erosions of accuracy and richness of data serve to corrode relations with students, instructors, and faculty. If the students don't feel the surveys matter, they won’ fill them out (many do not). If the instructors cannot retrieve actionable data, why deploy the surveys in the first place? If high-level faculty cannot act on data, course experiences cannot be improved, and as a result, the entire university suffers.

To rectify some of these issues, I feel that the school should develop customized surveys using input from instructors that evaluate the student’s experience, as well as their acquired knowledge through a set of questions pertaining to the material. These surveys would be evaluated and scored by the same people who manage surveys now, and serve as a much more realistic indicator of course quality and effectiveness, and could be used both online and offline.

However, I would not allow these surveys to affect a students grade, rather, I would utilize this data to demonstrate where specific courses are effective, need improvement or modification, or perhaps need restructuring. A survey of this type would provide LTU with truly actionable information that both high-level staff and instructors could use to lead to improved course effectiveness and student learning.