Lesson 9 - Quality Teaching in a Digital Age

However, even if we measure the course by these three criteria, we will not necessarily know what worked and what didn’t in the course. We need to look more closely at factors that may have influenced students’ ability to learn. We have laid out in steps 1-8 some of these factors. Some of the questions for which you may want answers are as follows:

• Were the learning outcomes or goals clear to students?
• What learning outcomes did most students struggle with?
• Was the teaching material clear and well structured?
• Were the learning materials and tools students needed easily accessible and available 24 x 7?
• What topics generated good discussion and what didn’t?
• Did students draw appropriately on the course materials in their discussion forums or assignments?
• Did students find their own appropriate sources and use them well in discussions, assignments and other student activities?
• Which student activities worked well, and which badly? Why?
• What of the supplied learning materials did students make most and least use of?
• Did the assignments adequately assess the knowledge and skills the course was aiming to teach?
• Were the students overloaded with work?
• Was it too much work for me as an instructor?
• If so, what could I do to better manage my workload (or the students’) without losing quality?
• How satisfied were the students with the course?
• How satisfied am I with the course?

I will now suggest some ways that these questions can be answered without again causing a huge amount of work.