How-To Guide
Evaluating Online Learning: Challenges and Strategies for Success
About
This guide describes strategies that practitioners can use to evaluate online learning programs.
"Because of the growing interest in creating strategies to design high quality evaluation of online learning, this guide was developed as a resource for evaluators, whether external, third-party researchers, or program administrators and other staff who are considering conducting their own internal evaluation" (p. 3). Contents include: an overview of challenges of evaluating online learning, recommendations for evaluation, and useful resources. (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)
Major Findings and Recommendations
General recommendations from this resource:
Begin with a clear vision for the evaluation. Determine what you want the evaluation to accomplish and what questions you hope to answer.
Determine the most appropriate evaluation methods for meeting your goals. Consider the different types of evaluations discussed in the guide (see Part I for examples of formative and summative; internal and external; experimental, quasi-experimental, and other types of evaluations) and the costs and benefits of each.
Budget to meet evaluation needs. Limited budgets are a common barrier to evaluators. When designing evaluations, consider whether there are available funds to cover all planned data collection and analysis activities, plus the costs of any needed background research, internal communications
and reporting, and incentives for study participants.
Develop a program culture that supports evaluation. Discuss evaluation with staff members, clearly explaining its value and their roles in collecting and analyzing data.
Communicate early and often with anyone who will be affected by the evaluation.
Dedicate adequate time and money to communicating with internal and external stakeholders at all phases of the evaluation. (p. 49-50)
Specific recommendations for meeting the needs of stakeholders, utilizing and building on the existing base of knowledge, evaluating multifaceted resources, considering a comparison study, gathering valid evaluation data, taking program maturity into account, and translating evaluation findings into action are all provided. (p 50-54) (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)
Materials
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Content Details
Methodology:
Topics:
Adult Learning Models
Curriculum Development
Distance Learning
Instructional Design
Online Training Methodology
Target Populations:
Programs:
Geographic Locations:
Industry Sectors:
- Last Updated:
- Created:
- Resource Publication Date: 2008
- Author(s): Individual author not identified
- Organizational Author(s): WestEd and Edvance Research, Inc.
- Funding Source: U.S. Department of Education
- Resource Availability: Publicly available
- Posted by: Burak Yuksel
- Posted in: Workforce System Strategies