ensure that the data is analysed and acted upon. The problems identified in e-
learning courses are similar to the ones reported for campus-based courses (Harvey,
2003; Leckey and Neill, 2001), and the results of this study highlight the factors that
are creating these difficulties, namely low response rates and the lack of proper
analysis and action upon the feedback collected. In e-learning courses teams need to
resolve any ambiguity in the allocation of responsibilities, to make sure module
evaluations are not only carried out but that their results are collated, shared by the
team and used to improve the quality of the students’ teaching and learning
experience.
Course teams tended to overlook the relevance of student representation as a
feedback mechanism in e-learning courses, and the remote location of students was
found to have a strong impact on student representation. This may be a difficult
mechanism to implement in e-learning courses, but tutors need to look for ways of
compensating for this. In particular, tutors need to explore further the possibilities
offered by the usually close relationship they establish with their students in on-line
interactions as a means of obtaining feedback.
These results point to the need for practitioners to look for new ways in which student
feedback can be gathered in e-learning courses. The interviews revealed other
strategies such as online events and online discussion boards that had been
implemented occasionally by the case study courses with varying success.
Harvey suggests, for feedback to be useful for enhancement purposes, there is a
need to move away from formal evaluation surveys at the end of modules as the
primary source of feedback and to look for more qualitative, dialogic methods
(Harvey, 2003). Research carried out by Daly (Daly, 2008) looking at embedded
forms of evaluation for mixed mode courses is a practical contribution in this area.
This approach, which has been successfully applied in on-line courses (Potter, 2008)
consists in embedding evaluation tasks as part of the activities of the e-learning
course, encouraging students to think about their own learning and how the course
design, materials and/or activities have supported them (or not) in this process. By
posing questions designed to prompt students’ reflection on their own learning, this
strategy offers the opportunity to explore students’ experiences and the possibility of
identifying difficulties and responding to them while students are still on the course.
6. Conclusions
The study of the effectiveness of procedures to assure and enhance quality indicated
that the main strategies for collecting student feedback (module evaluations and
student representation) were strongly affected by features of the on-line delivery of
the course.
Module evaluations were affected by the remote location of the students which
impacted on the response rates; the enhancement function of the module evaluations
was found to be severely affected by the disaggregation of processes and the
resulting ambiguity in the allocation of responsibilities, which impacted on the
appropriate management of students’ feedback.
Student representation was also affected by the remote location of the students. It
was interesting to find however, that students did not find the lack of student
representation a problem, as they felt the relationships established with their tutors
on-line were close enough for the tutors to act as the main channel for feedback.