Daniel Rand

EDCI 858
10/18/2015

Reflection: Demo Course Assessment

I found the SLOAN-C scorecard to be very helpful in assessing my online course.
The quality benchmarks are clearly delineated and allow one to systematically assess
and evaluate online education programs. The nine quality sections (Institutional
Support, Technology Support, Course Development and Instructional Design, Course
Structure, Teaching and Learning, Social and Student Engagement, Faculty Support,
Student Support and Evaluation and Assessment) not only serve to assess and
evaluate but serve as an informative guide helping to establish or improve online
learning environments. I appreciate the practicality of the scorecard because it allowed
me to make informed decisions about the usefulness of my course. .
One of the areas that I found most useful on the checklist was Category 4:
Course Structure. There is a large variance in the way courses are packaged and
arranged and sometimes this can be confusing to learners. Online learners need to
know exactly where to go to find their syllabus, discussion boards, learning modules,
drop boxes, etc. When a course doesnt have the proper elements or if they are
arranged (nested) in an ambiguous or indistinct manner it can be very frustrating.
Looking at the assessment criteria on the scorecard and bouncing it off my own course,

I learned that perhaps its best to keep things orderly and simply arranged. For
example, in my course I tried to provide multiple links within the course content menu.
My intent was to have users visit a section of the course, have it be nested, thereby
allowing them to click on a hyperlink and be redirected. The problem I ran into is that it
was confusing; there were too many options, nested in too many places. I know after
reviewing the scorecard that I committed a design flaw and that I need to go back and
eliminate excessiveness. Another reason to avoid needless hyperlinks is because links
are easily broken. For example if you move or add content and you linked it, you have
to go back and change the link. I received several error messages from the LMS
because I failed to update. Bottom line here is keep it simple and neat so learners can
devote time and energy to whats really important.
I also suffered low scores in Student Interaction. The quality scorecard also rates
whether students are provided a common space to interact outside the course. I
thought my recourse would be to form a class discussion board, or to form separate
group pages, but I decided against it. There is a significant amount of research showing
that students have limited participation in voluntary class- community spaces. I would
like to add/promote various learning technologies that create an engaging and
enjoyable learning experience. I would like to create spaces that leverage video, audio,
simulations, etc. We know that not everyone is a Read-Write learner and that
technology can enrich learning experiences; so why not leverage it to make group
spaces more engaging?