JISC

This project has now completed. See the project website and the final report available at the foot of this page.

Background / Context 

This project will produce an E-Framework (EF) toolkit that enables users to create applications that provide and consume services for course evaluation. While ‘Course Evaluation’ is not defined within the EF as such, there are related learning domain services, such as ‘Quality Assurance’. Within UK Higher and Further Education, course evaluation is a well-defined component of teaching and learning, and after the domains of ‘Learning Design’ and of ‘Assessment’ is probably the next most important. It is therefore valuable to have well articulated service descriptions and toolkit services for this domain.

Aims and Objectives

The project will produce an E-Framework toolkit that enables users to create course evaluation applications. The toolkit will focus upon the authoring of evaluation questionnaires, their use by students, and the authoring of course reports by tutors based upon questionnaire answers.

The specific objectives are to develop the following services:

• Creation, storage and searching of institutional evaluation forms
• Creation, storage and searching of specific course evaluation questionnaires
• Creation and storage of student course evaluations
• Creation and storage of institutional reporting forms (tutor reports)
• Analysis of evaluation questionnaires.  

Project Methodology

The project team will identify and commission services and technologies required from other projects (see Partners below); develop a toolkit portal framework; integrate and develop services for course evaluation items and questionnaires; specify and develop a student fill-in service; integrate and develop services for reports and data analysis; integrate and test toolkit portal and services (alpha testing); pilot the toolkit (beta testing); and undertake a community review of the toolkit.

Implications/ Deliverables/ Stakeholders

Well defined and usable services for course evaluation are of potential benefit to all students, tutors, course and programme managers in UK Higher and Further Education. The use and extension of previous project outcomes will contribute towards the development of the JISC e-Framework to the benefit of the e-learning and e-research community. Evaluation is a student learning activity, and hence the outcomes from the proposed toolkit services will have relevance for the development of other learning activities. The toolkit review will involve peers in identifying software quality and project maturity issues to be addressed during any subsequent demonstrator project. It is expected that the review will involve invited participants from the national and international elearning community. 

Project Partners

Relevant services and adaptors will be commissioned from the CORE and  R2Q2projects and from the Open University of the Netherlands (OUNL).