Degree Name

EdD (Doctor of Education)

Program

Educational Leadership

Date of Award

12-2005

Committee Chair or Co-Chairs

Terrence A. Tollefson

Committee Members

Harold Lee Daniels, Nancy Dishner, Nancy McMurray

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the most appropriate methods of assessment for online courses. Internet instructors were surveyed and asked which methods of assessment they use in the online courses that they teach and how effective they perceive those methods to be in determining if the learning objectives have been met for the course(s) that they teach online.

The findings of this study indicated that there is a difference between some academic disciplines in relation to the type of assessment methods being used in online courses. There is a difference in perceived effectiveness of assessment methods among the individual instructors surveyed. The most effective means of assessment as determined by the survey results is individual projects. The least effective method of assessment as determined by the survey results is self-assessment.

The study's results confirmed that objective testing is not considered the most effective method of assessment; however, several instructors still use this method because of time constraints. The study's results confirmed that a variety of assessment methods need to be used within each Internet course to determine the effectiveness of the course. Surprisingly, there was no difference in the assessment methods being used by those instructors who received training and those who did not. This conclusion could be because the training received by most online instructors was in Blackboard and/or technology and not assessment methods. There is a difference in the number of types of assessment being used by online instructors. The survey data indicated that there was not a difference in assessment methods being used by instructors who have taught for more than three years as compared to instructors who have taught three or fewer years. The study indicated that there is a difference in some of the types of assessments being used by instructors who teach more than one Internet course per year. Not surprisingly, instructors who have a large number of students and/or course sections resort to objective testing methods only because they do not have time to grade alternative assessment formats.

Document Type

Dissertation - unrestricted

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

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