An examination of the relationship between technology problems and teaching evaluation of online instruction

William Lan, Mary K. Tallent-Runnels, Wes Fryer, Julie Thomas, Sandi Cooper, Kun Wang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

To address faculty members' concern that teaching evaluation in the online environment might be lowered because of technology problems students experience in online courses, a sample of 202 undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory statistics course in a college of business administration was surveyed. Students' evaluation of their instructors and the course and their experiences with technology problems when taking the course were measured. As expected, a negative correlation between teaching evaluation and experience of technology problems was observed. Based on the finding, it is suggested that, to encourage faculty members to teach online, universities need to examine the relationship between teaching evaluation and technology problems experienced by students in the online environment and adjust the evaluation skewed by problems that are out of instructors' control. Measurement instruments used in the study and a suggested formula for adjusting teaching evaluation are provided.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)365-375
Number of pages11
JournalInternet and Higher Education
Volume6
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2003

Keywords

  • College students
  • Online instruction
  • Teaching evaluation
  • Technology difficulties

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