Outcomes
Main outcomes involve:
Increased contact with material (numbers of users)
Increased engagement with material (depth of use)
Increased community of learners (connection of users)
These will be measured by server logs, test and/or surveys of users, and monitoring community tools. The community tools are by their nature designed for comment and collaboration, and hence useful for evaluation purposes.
Primary obstacles include the inherent limitations in asynchronous online communication, along with the need to change social practices in the users. Traditional educational models fall short in an online arena, in part because of the expectations of the learner. In addition, other challenges are found in the creation of the course content. Often direct “ports” of standard lecture materials are not sufficient to support online learning. There may need to be some augmentation with ancillary technologies/approaches (e.g. podcasting) to explore alternative models.