The topic for the most recent meeting of the Online Teaching Workgroup was evaluating (or self-evaluating) online courses. This is an important way for us to improve our teaching by seeking the experience and advice of a peer.
There are several types of evaluations departments and universities use for peer evaluations. Most are a simple observation by another faculty member who then makes a short write-up. Online evaluations tend to be more quanititative and thorough asking about specific aspects of each course. Southern Arkansas University’s evaluation tool is perhaps the best example. This is an Excel file you can fill out using dropdown menus. At the end it automatically gives you a grade based on your answers.
Penn State‘s form is more open ended, but it still has seven categories with focused questions. Ironically, the scholarship Penn State uses as the foundation for its review is from 1987. This same scholarship also forms the foundation for the Quality Matters rubric, which is the most commonly used online teaching tool. Needless to say, these work for face to face courses as well as online.
Evaluating yourself or a peer is a good way to think about your class in a different way. Give honest answers to the questions and try to make moderate improvements if there are glaring issues. These evaluation forms are only a start. As the attendees of the OTW meeting pointed out, there was not much that was specifically “online” about any of the evaluation forms I showed. These are only a starting point to self-improvement and can be combined with students evaluations to improve your approach to a course.