There are standards for the trainer and standards for the course content, which include the trainer's commitment to electronic attendance, presentation of the content of the subject and modern training and scientific methods and its use that have an appropriate training climate and time for the course and must The course provides and employs accessible technologies and provides guidance on how to obtain them. The course offers many alternatives to audio-visual content. The course design is easy to read

https://www.tonybates.ca/2012/07/09/nine-steps-to-quality-online-learning-step-9-evaluate-and-innovate/

Some research had advanced in educational achievement, the idea is to establish differences between non-online and online education in same courses. For that exists some application of Education Production Functions by Eric A. Hanushek. See: http://hanushek.stanford.edu/publications/education-production-functions-1

The extent to which online and face-to-face courses meet learning objectives may well be the only common parameter that formative and summative evaluations look at. Because online and face-to-face courses achieve learning objectives in different ways, however, online courses need to be scrutinized in particular for interactivity, language, rubric, technical functions, and visual impact, with good use of midway and end-of-course audience surveys as well as focus groups to absorb learning experiences (of both instructors and students) and speedily integrate these in revised course designs. (To note, online courses demand high intentionality from instructors.)

How do test scores alone measure the overall 'quality' of a college course, Herman Gruenwald ?

Don't test scores depend on the difficulty of the test, as well as how hard the students study?

Paul, in evaluating quality in education provision (whether online or face-to-face), a range of aspects need to be considered, including both the quantitative and qualitative. The minutiae areas should focus on the extent to which learners' experiences have been enriched as a result of undertaking such a course, whether the identified learning objectives and the purposes for setting up the provision have been met/achieved and, within the broadest frame of reference whether the socio-cultural and emotional dimensions of learners have been positively impacted as a result. Interesting...

Hi Paul,

I have been involved in developing and delivering engineering modules/courses for a web-based institution. The programme received accreditation from the relevant professional body in the UK. The accrediting body took a different approach in assessing this programme. What I can say, from my experience, is that online courses must be evaluated differently. There are several skill sets which cannot be fully assessed in an online setting. Online courses suit learners who rank high in terms of their capability in independent and self-directed learning. The quality of an online course is assessed, in my opinion, on the basis of the course content, assessment methods and the rigour of the assessed material. Please get in touch with me if you would like to hear my thoughts in further detail.

Regards

Chandra

Hello

The meaning of quality in an online course to administrators, faculty, and students

• January 2017
• Journal of Interactive Learning Research 28(1):65-86
• 📷Esther Smidt
• Rui Li
• 📷Jennifer A. Bunk
• Show all 5 authors
• Ashley McAndrew

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Please perform a documentation analysis.

The evaluation of online course should be based on more reading work and original work.

It is impossible to assess the quality of the online course.

The concept of quality acquires evaluative meaning when the results of at least two similar processes are compared.

And for this purpose signs and criteria for comparison are defined.

If it is an online course, it is incorrect to ask questions about its quality.

Moreover, it is incorrect to rely on subjective assessments of users ...

It is difficult to assess most online courses for a variety of reason. First, there are no minimum standards for courses across colleges, or sometimes, even within a single university. This is especially true for colleges that have both online and face-to-face versions of the same course. Second, creating a comprehensive tool that truly assesses the complexities of the course is challenging. Third, creating standards for the course may have to be tailored to reflect the online or face-to-face aspects.Fourth, unless both formative and summative evaluations it is difficult to capture the all the dimensions of the course. Finally, there is no way to easily assess or take into account the learning experiences and abilities of both the instructor or the students.

You can evaluate the quality of online course by:

a. Conducting an assessment of the comprehensiveness of the course curriculum.

b. Reviewing the established assessment criteria of the assignments, tests, quizzes, and courses.

c. Reviewing the relevant quality assurance framework or processes within the institution and for the courses.

Best Regards,

Dr. Segun Awode

It is difficult to evaluate 100% but still tutor can design tentative criterion. Online training feedback, e-learning assessment results, learner’s performance, measures desired outcomes etc. are the points which can helpful in evaluating the quality of an online course. Develop criteria beforehand and decide how you are going to monitor learner progress and performance. Then, measure the results upon completion of the online training course as they relate to your learning objectives and goals.

The quality of an online course can be evaluated by taking into account:

1. the objectives and goals of the course (its intended purposes)

2. the fairness of the content and methods of assessment.

3. the impact of the course from the learners perspectives.

According to the specialization, there are specializations that can be evaluated easily from a distance, such as creating a report or specific software or conducting a specific report or innovation. On the contrary, there are specializations that can not be evaluated from a distance at all, such as psychology, personality, etc. ... Thank you

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Hi! The quality of online classes can be measured using pre and post class survey among the learners. What was the expectations of the learners prior the class and how they feel, learned after finishing the particular online course. Thanks.

You can conduct a pretest and post test. In my previous research, I measure quality of their sentence in live chat and compare it with their works in post test. Quality of their sentences can be measured by qualitative instruments.

It is all well and good to use pre and post test for theory subject. I am teaching vocational courses with large practical content. These are very difficult to both teach and evaluate especially in the context of trying to do this in Zimbabwe. One would need virtual reality tools available to the students in lock down, which is not available even in the institutions. So we can only teach and evaluate parts of the syllabus. I agree with previous speakers that we also need to include evaluation of the learners experience of the online courses.

There are Various purposes of evaluating a programme . Whether we would like to evaluate as reaction or effect or impact. Again whether sucess of programme in terms of application of knowledge gain.

I agree with Shamima Raihan Manzoor

I just say, in the same line:

1. To define de competence and their evidences of performances. Even an external test could be useful.

2. Design and use that to evaluate students before course and after the course. I prefer for that a quasi-experimental design, comparing the online course with what could be its face-to-face version.

3. Test the students with the evaluation in both groups at the begining (to evidence their previous knowledge of subject), and at the end of the course (to evidence their progress in the moment) and six months or one year after the course ending (to test the persistence of learning).

4. Collect evidence of the impact of the related activity by student and its impact on their natural and social environment.

5. Analize the results in general, and by groups of different features (related with student, school, program and social support).

6. Present all of those results on general panorama.

What we see when we did it our research project in Colombia, is that student performance depend on may features (as I said: elated with student, school, program and social support), but when we compare by groups, controlling by kind of higher education institution, differences among online and face to face students vanished.

The answer will be different from one country to another according to the quality of the Internet, communications technology, electricity, and the quality and efficiency of the lecturers, so if all the necessary means are available and a team working with efficiency and high experience to set up courses via the Internet, I think it will be successful.

The conduct of pre and post test may help in evaluating the "quality' of online course. Also, reflecting on one's practice, as well as the students' may help in evaluating.

I agree with Iris L Ramirez that a pre-test to be held of the participants to have an idea as to how much they know, post test to know how much they have learnt through a particular course. I also agree with Nikolas Arias that a test to be held some months after the ending of the course to know how much have they retained.

Paul: Several of you suggest a Pre-test and Post-test, which is a great idea. But I have some questions about that strategy.

Does anyone have any data on how students feel about a pre-test and post-test? How do they feel about taking a test on Day 1 of class (before any lessons are taught)?

I personally would have a negative view about having to take a test on the 1st day of class before any lessons are taught. Do you explain why the Pre-test is important?

Is the Post-test the "Final Exam" for the course?

Do you assign points to the pre-test and post-test? Why or why not?

Need it at this time especially with Crohn virus

Philosophy of quality is based on four pillars

Rationality

Communicability

Negotiability

Sharebility

For online courses these four measures can be verified.

The online course works on a completely different pedagogy where a trainer or instructor may use a pre-evaluation strategy along with the formative evaluation during or after the course. Another difference in an online course is the low response rate of the learner because it may be influenced by the students' perception of the course. It also depends on the need of the learner to do the online course as many of them are now being done to obtain appropriate recognition. 

I think for one toe valuate the quality of the online course, one has to go back to the goals and objectives of the course. The activities and assessments should be harmonized in order to ensure the quality of online learning and teaching.

Depends upon intent and content of your course and the the delivery credentials apart from the digital infrastructure available.

Through self-training for the trainees, and through repeated tests of various models of topics that fall within the courses of the training course

The evaluation can be carried out through a form in which a set of questions is answered and the choice is multiple, so that the questions are comprehensive for all topics and distributed according to Bloom's cognitive levels (remembering, understanding, application, analysis, evaluation, innovation)

It is very difficult to enforce quality (read integrity) of online assessment to be specific more so during this pandemic. However, several actions can be taken including less time given to answer questions in order to deter candidates from googling answers. There could also be controlled assessment methods like keyboard activity vs dormant time, which could be an indicator of cheating. Among others.

I would recommend combining different methods to have a better understanding of the aspects contributing to the quality of the course.

The evaluation can be carried out through a questionnaire or a focus group (different topics could be adressed for ex. the content, the method, the objectives, the student's experience).

Or, as suggested by others, the evaluation can be carried out through a pré and post test. It is also possible to evaluate the perception of the students (for ex. self-efficacy questionnaire). Among others.

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Thank you for the excellent question. The quality assessment of an online course involves several aspects (1) general issues such as adherence to time/schedule, organisation issues. (2) technical issues such as delivery, voice, interruption in transmission, noises, images, or other concerns about the system used in the delivery (3) content and distribution such as has the session been modified to fit into online mode, interaction, clarity, explanation of difficult issues, use of diagrams or images etc., (4) feedback from students on sessions, (5) feedback from teaching staff, (6) impact on learning and understanding, and (7) recommendations for improvement.

Further, I would recommend exploring two or three of these aspects, but if you are after a comprehensive evaluation, go ahead with all these aspects. Each of these needs significant work in preparing questionnaires and questions to be addressed.

There are standards for the trainer and standards for the course content, which include the trainer's commitment to electronic attendance, presentation of the content of the subject and modern training and scientific methods and its use that have an appropriate training climate and time for the course and must The course provides and employs accessible technologies and provides guidance on how to obtain them. The course offers many alternatives to audio-visual content. The course design is easy to read

The evaluation of the quality online course depends on some factors:

- objective of the course

- targeted audiences

- the proficiency level of the audiences

- the the quality of the tech production of the course (sound, images, teaching/ methodology and audio-aids, etc.)

- the trainer's tech skills

Samy has come closest to a reasonable answer. There are many possible metrics and a decision has to be taken as to which ones will apply. As Samy says, professionalisation as in keeping to schedule is important, as are the technical issues. Basically I think the metrics can be divided as ‘hard’ and ‘soft’. Hard are the measurable elements such as keeping to time, being well organised and so on. ‘Soft’ are subjective, such as ‘does this slide make sense?’, ‘are the colours conducive to learning?’ and so on. Then there are the legalities such as institutional branding. So, make the hard decision as to what you think is important to measure, keeping in mind that a consistency is beneficial across all courses. The worst thing is to have a maverick wanting to stand out as different by ‘doing it their way’.

Depends upon the type of assessment thus formative or summative. the issue of feedback and the integrity of the assessment should be considered. Higher levels of Blooms taxonomy, for instance, creating, evaluating, as well as technolgical tools like the Respondus Lockdown Browsers , may be utilized during the setting and administration of assessment to minimize cheating

I believe the mode of evaluation should be different. This is because online modes of delivery are multi-facet as compared to face to face delivery. Further, more technology or Information Communication Technology skills are needed or used more in on line learning as such a different assessment or evaluation forms must be designed to check quality.

It is really a big challenge to know which are the real quality online courses.