Abstract
The currently available measures of online teaching effectiveness (OTE) have several flaws, including a lack of psychometric rigor, high costs, and reliance on the construct of traditional on-the-ground teaching effectiveness as opposed to the unique features of OTE (Blackman, Pedersen, March, Reyes-Fournier, & Cumella, 2019). Therefore, the present research sought to establish a psychometrically sound framework for OTE and develop and validate a measure based on this clearly-defined construct. The authors developed pilot questions for the new measure based on a comprehensive review of the OTE literature and their many years of experience as online instructors. Students enrolled in exclusively online coursework and programs at Purdue University Global, N = 213, completed the survey, rating the effectiveness of their instructors. Exploratory Factor Analysis produced four clear OTE factors: Presence, Expertise, Engagement, and Facilitation. The resulting measure demonstrated good internal consistency and high correlations with an established OTE measure; good test-retest reliability; and predictive validity in relation to student achievement. Confirmatory Factor Analysis revealed a good fit of the data and yielded a final 12-item OTE measure. Further refinement and validation of the measure are recommended, particularly with students in other universities, and future research options are discussed.Keywords: online teaching effectiveness, instructor effectiveness, distance learning, student evaluations, asynchronous learning.
Highlights
The currently available measures of online teaching effectiveness (OTE) have several flaws, including a lack of psychometric rigor, high costs, and reliance on the construct of traditional onthe-ground teaching effectiveness as opposed to the unique features of OTE (Blackman, Pedersen, March, Reyes-Fournier, & Cumella, 2019)
The e-SIR II retains more than half the items from the SIR II and includes new items created by a panel of online educators
The Student Evaluation of Online Teaching Effectiveness (SEOTE) was initially founded in Chickering and Gamson’s (1987) principles of effective teaching, but after initial exploratory factor analysis, the measure produced a four-factor model of OTE (Bangert, 2008)
Summary
The currently available measures of online teaching effectiveness (OTE) have several flaws, including a lack of psychometric rigor, high costs, and reliance on the construct of traditional onthe-ground teaching effectiveness as opposed to the unique features of OTE (Blackman, Pedersen, March, Reyes-Fournier, & Cumella, 2019). The e-SIR II addresses the following dimensions: five items pertaining to planning and course organization; five to the interaction between faculty and students; five to specific course activities, such as grading, exams, and assignments;, eight to the teacher’s instruction and course material; five to course outcomes; three to student effort and engagement; and three to the amount of work, pace, and difficulty of the course (Liu, 2011) Of these 40 items, more than half are specific to course content, such as materials, subject matter, assignments, and exams, which are often not controlled by the online instructors and not relevant to rating OTE. Because online instructors often have little input into course design, items of this kind do not adequately reflect OTE
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