Internet Learning Volume 4, Number 1, Spring 2015 | Page 61

Internet Learning Journal – Volume 4, Issue 1 – Spring 2015
society (Garrison, 2011). Therefore, it is important to examine the impact that online
teaching training programs have on online course quality from the student perspective.
There are different approaches to assess outcomes of online course delivery, and a
comprehensive evaluation should address its multiple aspects (Fenwick, 2001). For instance,
final course grade is most commonly used to evaluate how well each student has learned
from a course, but final course grades alone are not enough to measure teaching
effectiveness (Barr & Tagg, 1995). A student is likely to receive a better grade from a welldesigned
course than from a poorly-designed course. However, the final grade also depends
on many other factors, such as how motivated, prepared, and diligent a student is. Thus,
researchers found only a marginal relationship between student final grades and course
evaluation (Johnson, 2002; Gigliotti, & Buchtel, 1990).
In addition to the final grades they receive,, students also base their evaluations of a
course on its design and implementation (Remedios & Lieberman, 2008). Among different
measures, researchers find that student course evaluations tend to be generally reliable and
valid (Centra, 1993; Hobson & Talbot, 2001). The perceived course quality of students is not
often strongly correlated with the grades that they receive, which depends on many noncourse-related
factors (Johnson, 2002; Gigliotti, & Buchtel, 1990). Actually, student
perceptions of course organization and delivery are more reliable than rapport with students
and fair grading (Jirovec, Ramanathan & Rosegrant-Alvarez, 1998; Chen, & Hoshower,
2003). Thus, student feedback provides a viable way to evaluate the quality of online courses
(Driscoll, Jicha, Hunt, Tichavsky & Thompson, 2002).
Research Hypotheses
The independent variable of this study is whether or not a faculty member has
participated in Quality Matters training before teaching the online course surveyed. The
dependent variables are student perceptions of online course quality from different aspects
of Quality Matter Standards. The effects of faculty training on online quality can be assessed
by comparing student perceptions between the different levels of the independent variable.
The main premise is that if faculty training improves online course design, students will
positively affect course delivery.
There are five primary aspects of Quality Matters standards, and correspondingly
there are five dependent variables. These dependent variables include: learning objectives,
outcome assessments, instructional materials, learner interactions, and course technologies.
Quality Matters training provides faculty members with specific guidelines on how to
enhance each aspect in the design of online courses. Altogether, five research hypotheses are
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