Online Automated Assessment and Survey Tool

Judith Kirkpatrick, Professor, Language Arts Department, Kapi‘olani Community College
Herve Collin, Instructor, Math and Science Department, Kapi‘olani Community College
University of Hawai‘i

System-wide collaborative A.A. Program Assessment

Since fall 1998, Kirkpatrick has taught online courses, using the KCCMOO server for synchronous discussion events weekly; however, the KapCC campus only had a paper-based student evaluation environment, so she used the WebCT anonymous survey tool to produce student feedback that evaluated her instruction and also evaluated other aspects of the Internet-delivered course; as Kirkpatrick developed further expertise in teaching online, evaluating delivery methods was important. As an "early adopter" of technology and teaching tools, the anonymous survey tool was adequate, but not tailorable to meet all Kirkpatrick's needs.

The same questions that were used on campus/paper surveys were put into the WebCT survey tool; however, the statistics generated were not as well done as the paper-based questions. From 1998 through 2000, Kirkpatrick used the tool rather than finding more difficult devices to get anonymous student input. Also, Kirkpatrick was well aware of the risks for faculty new to online teaching who needed to conduct student evaluations for purposes of contract renewal, tenure and promotion documents. She provided the code and instructions for other faculty use of the WebCT version of the tool.

In 1999, Kirkpatrick and other faculty were appointed as members of the system-wide committee, mostly populated by administrators, of the University of Hawai‘i community colleges. They began to plan the system-wide collaborative A.A. program, delivered by seven community colleges, see: UHCC E-Learn. The program needed to assess its effectiveness in providing services to distance students using tools that were at least comparable to how campus-based students are provided opportunities to deliver anonymous feedback. In 1999, faculty and students input was solicited from various support staff such as television studios, librarians, counselors, registrars, financial aid officers, and others. Also, students were often taking courses from more than one to as many as three different campuses. Surveys were viewed by faculty as taking up too much time at the end of the semester, questions overlapped, and good feedback. In summer, 2000, Kirkpatrick gathered all the surveys and questions she could find from various campuses and support services, synthesized the questions, and developed a Pre and Post Assessment of the technology and support services offered to students who are not learning in a brick and mortar classroom.

Slide 5
A. A. Program Assessment
To Slide 6