Evaluation of Online Course Websites: Is Teaching Online a Tug-of-War?

Abstract

The need for an evaluation instrument for web-based, mainly asynchronous, course websites is necessary. An instrument was developed and tested to assess whether there was an appropriate checklist of items that were expected of an online course website by both students and faculty. The instrument was developed from surveying the current literature in online learning. Faculty and student surveys showed that there was strong support for the instrument overall, but lack of agreement for some individual items. Categories that showed the most differences between faculty and students were instructor information, computer-mediated communication, navigation, and use of the site. Frustration, expressed in comments over differences in expectations, may be mitigated by faculty anticipating problems with the described items and stating requirements prior to the start of the course.