Award Date

1-1-2001

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Curriculum and Instruction

First Committee Member

Eunsook Hong

Second Committee Member

Neal Strudler

Number of Pages

228

Abstract

The current study attempted to develop an instrument to be used by instructors to conduct a comprehensive Web-based course evaluation. Four phases of instrument development were implemented. Phase I, involved the development if items through a review of the literature and the opinions of instructors and students enrolled in four Web-based mathematics courses. After the items were formulated and a response format was established, a questionnaire blueprint was developed. An item review, a content validation study, and an item tryout were conducted; In Phase II, the initial questionnaire was placed on the World Wide Web together with a cover letter containing all required elements of informed consent as outlined by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. All instructors identified previously to be teaching online courses were asked for help in distributing the initial questionnaire to their students. Five weeks into each school's spring 2001 semester, the researcher provided the online instructors with the URL of the questionnaire. Ten days after the Web address of the questionnaire was mailed to the instructors, a follow up e-mail message was sent to them; A total of 1,405 responses were used in the study stemming from students in 182 courses taught by 142 instructors at 34 institutions. The number of responses was more than enough for the statistical procedures that followed. In the current study, a minimum of 300 (i.e., 5 x 60) and a maximum of 600 (i.e., 10 x 60) would have sufficed; In Phase III eight exploratory factor analyses were carried out. Item means, standard deviation, item discrimination index, and Cronbach's alpha were calculated. Of the eight exploratory factor analyses conducted, the principal component analysis with direct oblimin rotation revealed a structure most similar to the one that resulted in Phase I of this study; In Phase IV, the questionnaire was revised using feedback given in Phase I and II combined with the results of Phase III. Items that were repetitive or that did not add additional information to the dimensions were deleted. The final names for the dimensions were also determined. A final version of the questionnaire, entitled Web-Based Course Evaluation, was placed on the Internet to be used by interested educators. Additionally, the code facilitating import of the questionnaire into the WebCT Survey Module and guidelines for evaluation of each item were posted to the Word Wide Web (see http://www.scsv.nevada.edu/∼steward/mathweb/quest/intro.htm).

Keywords

Based; Course Evaluation; Development; Distance Education; Evaluation; Instruction; Instrument; Students; Validation; Web; Web-based

Controlled Subject

Curriculum planning; Education, Higher; Educational psychology; Educational technology

File Format

pdf

File Size

4352 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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