Students have been evaluating their instructors for years in traditional classes and those evaluations have been sufficiently validated over the years. Suzanne Young, in “Student Views of Effective Online Teaching in Higher Education,” was curious about student attitudes specific to online education. The beginning of her article is a literature review of discussions of the differences between traditional and distance education. Using that research, she identified seventeen questions that accurately evaluated effective teaching and an additional eight factors unique to online teaching.
About 200 students responded to her survey request (of about 450 queried) and formed the basis for her study. The demographics of the responding students were sufficiently aligned with the original universe to provide validation for that sample. She used linear regression analysis to identify the factors in the survey that might provide some basis for differences in online teaching.
She found seven items with sufficient confidence levels that would be accurate indicators of effective online teaching: “adapting to student needs, using meaningful examples, motivating students to do their best, facilitating the course effectively, delivering a valuable course, communicating effectively, and showing concern for student learning.” The remaining items, while providing helpful feedback to the instructor, were not accurate indicators of teacher effectiveness in online teaching.
Properly taught online classes provide student the necessary flexibility around other demands. While a traditional class offers students the opportunity to ask questions about unclear explanations, this interaction is too slow in an online course and effective teachers design their course material to minimize, if not eliminate any confusion. Students enrolled in online courses expect the material to be challenging and relevant to the students.
Teaching online is much more demanding than traditional course delivery. Unlike “live” classes in which teachers can change all aspects of the course as needed, online instructors must make tremendous up front investments in planning for delivery and discussions. This is followed by effective communication with the students. Properly trained online educators will not only be more effective, but also more efficient at leveraging learner-learner interaction to reduce those personal time demands to allow more time to serve as facilitators.
This is another article to be added to my pool of resources to be used when working with faculty, many of whom confuse distance learning technology proficiency with distance education effectiveness.
Young, S. (2006). Student Views of Effective Online Teaching in Higher Education. American Journal of Distance Education, 20(2), 65. doi:10.1207/s15389286ajde2002_2
Evaluations specifically designed for courses delivered in either hybrid or distance formats are long overdue, and it’s good to read about this research. Also important here is the distinction between useful feedback to the teacher and a valid instrument for teaching and learning evaluations. This article might prove very useful for any of us teaching at a distance who have to work with a standardized ‘fits all classes” university evaluation form when we want to communicate to others the how well a class/learning community evolved.