Suchergebnisse

ABSTRACTAssessment is becoming important from many different perspectives. Universities are planning, developing, and testing various assessment models to satisfy stakeholders. Many accrediting agencies are also requiring assessment plans and their implementation from universities for reaccreditation. This article describes how assessment was used to continuously improve a database course in a Web MBA program, and combines Deming's Plan‐Do‐Check‐Act (PDCA) cycle with Bloom's taxonomy to develop rubrics for problem solving learning objectives in an online course. Results from direct and indirect measurements are used to improve the course. Specifically, two semester results are compared for course assessment. Results show some improvement; however, the course requires continuous improvement to meet benchmarks. The model presented here is generic in nature and should be useful for all educators who plan to initiate or continue the assessment and continuous improvement process. Instead of reinventing the wheel, educators can learn from our experiences and use the results as a starting point for their own assessment programs.

The nature and antecedents of faculty satisfaction in online higher education have not received much scholarly attention yet, despite the growing literature that indicates the relevance of faculty satisfaction for outcomes such as the success of e-learning programs, student learning, and student satisfaction. This exploratory study surveyed 171 faculty members from multiple institutions of higher education to learn about their experiences teaching online and to examine factors that might affect their satisfaction. Our study finds that higher education faculty who teach online are generally satisfied, and that satisfaction is more likely if there is appropriate training, and if teaching online allows for flexibility in their schedules. Although a weaker relationship, results also suggest that faculty are more satisfied teaching online when institutional support and organizational policies uphold online teaching efforts. Contrary to our expectations, however, our findings show that faculty who are more satisfied with support for technical elements of the online teaching environment, are less satisfied teaching online. Implications for research and practice are discerned through both the presence and absence of support for three sets of hypotheses, regarding faculty, institutional and technical factors.