WEB Ideas and Issues

Online Education Standards - WAOE's Role

A lively discussion has opened up on WAOE-Views about the need for standards governing online education and the role that WAOE should play in their development and implementation.  For the benefit of those many members who have STILL not subscribed to our unmoderated discussion listserve, a core contribution to the discussion is reproduced below.  It comes form Treasurer Jenna Seehafer, but in her capacity as Convenor of the Educational Standards Online Course and Resource Evaluation Workgroup (OCREW): http://www.waoe.org/edst_ocrew.htm.

 

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One "product" that WAOE needs, and needs soon to meet its own goals, is a statement of online educational standards for measuring the quality and effectiveness of online education.  These standards, at first, would be general enough and universal enough (ideally) to apply to any level of education and any subject. Educators could then define additional online standards appropriate to their intended students' ages and their particular field of instruction.  My suggestions about where to begin this process are neither complete, nor are they stated as they would be in the final proposed standards.  At this point, I am interested in how much we agree on these assumptions and categories of measurement as a group.

Do members of WAOE have any objections to or comments about the following beginning assumptions?

  • "WAOE's Educational Standards" should reflect the experiences, expertise, and wisdom of educators who are concerned about the quality of education and the usefulness of online and computer-mediated methods.

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  • Online education differs inherently from traditional f-2-f courses of study.

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  • Standards for classroom teaching may not apply or even be comparable with online teaching and learning.

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  • The quality of online education should be measured against online educational standards rather than traditional educational standards.
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    Do members have objections to or comments about using any of the following categories for measuring the effectiveness and quality of online education?

  • the degree to which the course of study is online

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  • how assessable the online course of study is to the world community of learners

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  • the degree to which the learning experience is learner-centered rather than teacher-centered

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  • the degree to which the learning experience is interactive

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  • the degree to which the learning experience is self-correcting

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  • the clarity of educational goals for each unit or course

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  • the degree to which students achieve those goals

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  • the appropriateness of assessment tools

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  • the degree to which the the online course of study conforms to the technology available to the intended students

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  • the degree to which the online course of study addresses the needs of students with various preferred learning styles

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  • the degree to which the online course of study accommodates the needs of students with disabilities

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  • the level of frustration students experience in using the online course of study

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  • the level of individual support for students--both educational and technical

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  • how often and how personally instructors respond to student questions and to assignments computers cannot correct (yet)

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  • the degree to which the online educational materials comply with WWW Consortium standards for web materials
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    I hope to hear discussion and constructive arguments about any or all of these points or perhaps suggestions for additional assumptions or
    measures (but please no flames).

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    About WEB Ideas and Issues

    The issues and other matters raised in this section of WEB are intended to derive from members’ concerns and suggestions.

    Input to WAOE-Views during the recent Annual General Meeting showed us that members are looking for opportunities to engage with important issues and ideas affecting the Web-based delivery of teaching and learning, but also that we need to do more to spell out to our members details of the organisational procedures through which they will get to know more frequently and reliably what goals the Association is pursuing, what action is being taken to realise these goals, and - most importantly - how members may make the most effective contributions to WAOE.

    As a result, a new column, WAOE Policies and Procedures, has been split off from WEB Ideas and Issues.  This will free the WEB Ideas and Issues column to be taken up more and more by topics of interest arising from the thinking of the members at large about their own professional practice in online education, and the role that WAOE as a whole and the sub-groups in which members are most actively engaged might play in lifting the standards and quality of Web-based teaching and learning.

    If you have a concern to express, an idea to suggest, a question to raise, a point to make about online education in general and about WAOE's work in relation to online education in particular, write a short item for the WEB Ideas and Issues column and send it to the WEB Editor.   On a smaller, less formal scale, you might prefer to air your views first of all in the Your Say section of WEB.  Depending on the nature and volume of early responses to the Your Say item, matters raised may spark an article in the Web Ideas and Issues section of WEB, a free-ranging discussion on WAOE-Views, or a structured debate or online chat via the WAOE WebBoard.

     

    Online Ed. Standards: WAOE's Role | About This Section | Top