Development And Application Of An Instrument To Evaluate The Quality Of Online Courses

Online education is an emerging form of education that is likely to displace traditional education.Information technology has brought about fundamental changes in the way we learn,work,and live,but it has had some of its most dramatic effects in online education.The evaluation and continuous improvement of online courses has been subject to much attention and is a keystone to the quality of online teaching in higher education.In this spirit,the study focused on the online curriculum of N University,in Boston,Massachusetts,USA,and specifically on quality evaluation and continuous improvement.It discusses the principal issues in course evaluation methods and models specific to N University.An online course evaluation model called “Learning Primary Interface” was built,which integrates the needs of N University(these are discussed in the study).This model was then applied to the design and development of the online course evaluation tool.Through the application of the online course evaluation tool and data analysis,the study proposes a way forward to the improvement of the quality of online courses at N University and interpolates these results to the research and development of online courses in higher education in China.