The article explores the challenges of assessment in open distance learning (ODL). The authors argue that ultimately assessment should be about improving the quality of teaching and effective learning. It should be based on making expectations explicit and public, setting appropriate criteria and high standards for learning quality, systematically…

This study extends existing student ratings research by exploring how teaching methods, individually and collectively, influence a minimum standard of student achievement on learning objectives and how class size impacts this influence. Twenty teaching methods were used to predict substantial or exceptional progress on each of 12 learning…

The main goals of course evaluations are to obtain student feedback regarding courses and teaching for improvement purposes and to provide a defined and practical process to ensure that actions are taken to improve courses and teaching. Of the items on course evaluation forms, the one that receives the most attention and consequently the most…

Item correlations performed between student ratings of instruction in various situations clearly indicate that student ratings are consistent across time, but that this consistency is related to specific educational settings and conditions as well as instructor idiosyncracies. (RC)

This investigation studied the effect of teaching satisfaction and related classroom environmental variables on student evaluations of instruction where the assigned instructor and course subject were held constant over two successive academic terms at a branch campus of a major state university. Scores on two dimensions of teaching, Instructor…

The effect of class size, course level, instructor rank, campus, and subject area on 14,366 student ratings of 488 science and mathematics classes at a main university and 18 branch campuses was investigated. Class means were factor-analyzed and four resultant components of teaching performance were submitted to a 2x2x2x2x3 MANOVA. Discriminant…

A meta analysis was conducted of studies of college students' evaluations of their teachers. Forty-seven studies were included, representing 74 multisection courses, in which four selection criteria were met. An actual, rather than an experimental class was used; the unit of analysis was the class rather than the individual student; a common…

Data were collected on 80 diverse items concerning student perceptions of teaching for a representative sample of 189 classes at a large university. The items were subdivided by type of focus into four categories: course content, objectives, and structure; instructor's behavior; instructional methods and materials; outcomes of instruction. The…