Evaluation of eLearning for Effective Practice Guidebook/Introduction

Why is this course right for you?
This is your chance to plan and conduct a real evaluation project. When done properly evaluation is a truly wondrous thing to behold, and will bring many rewards. Can you imagine being able to tell your manager, with certainty, that your online course is not only popular with students, but is also helping them to understand the subject; AND that they not only use, but actually enjoy using the resources you spent so many hours compiling. There is nothing like hard data and a well written report for influencing management decisions.

What will you be doing?
You will experience real methods of evaluation in action as you plan and carry out your project. The content in the course is based on current thinking in the field. You will be encouraged to use a mix of methods (quantitative and qualitative) to gather data because this is regarded as the most effective for the complexity of the online environment. However, before you start planning your evaluation, pause, AND take some time to:
 * Get to know the others in the class as you will be carrying out the evaluation project in a pair or group of three, depending on numbers in the class;

Class communication
There are several ways to get in touch with others in the class:
 * email using eMit Blackboard;
 * Discussion forum on eMit Blackboard - this will be used for questions and guided discussions;
 * Via the weblogs (blogs) which each person will set up in Blackboard (unless you prefer to use an external blogging platform such as blogger.com or wordpress.com).

Getting ready for those darned assessments
All the activities you carry out for the evaluation project count towards your assessments in the subject. What could be fairer than that? Before you get started on the activities, you need to have a place to record your responses to the activities. A blog is ideal for this. The blog will also be the place where you link to the evaluation plan, the results and the evaluation report. You are also going to need to record your reflections about your contribution to the evaluation process, and the place to do this is on your blog - for Assessment Four. So, please start posting on your blog from day one by introducing yourself.

Activity One - Introduce yourself on your blog
Tell the class about:
 * Who you are and your work etc.,
 * Your interest in evaluation and what you know already,
 * What you hope to get out of this course,
 * Ideas you may already have for an evaluation project.


 * Look at the Three-Step Reflective Framework - a guide for reflecting on learning. Clicking on the diagram will enlarge it.

If you prefer to use an external blog platform,
 * Look at help in getting started with blogs.
 * Enable subscribing (RSS feed) and Followers.
 * Add the URL for your blog to the Blackboard discussion forum.