Evaluating Online and Blended Courses for Student Success

Too often, students who open the LMS to their hybrid or remote course for the first time are landing in a maze of tabs, broken links, inaccessible images, and unclear due dates. These are seemingly minor points of friction that can quickly cause students to check out.

Instructors who are familiar with the content and workflow of their course can underestimate the accumulated impact of these small points of friction and inconsistency, says Phil Denman, Coordinator of the Quality Scorecard Suite for the Online Learning Consortium (OLC). The quality scorecards provide consistency in evaluating online courses and are built on a foundation of peer benchmarks, accreditation standards, and evidence-based practices.

“Students might not use the word ‘standards’ like we do in academia,” Denman says, “but they do know when one course is organized and supportive and another feels like a scavenger hunt.”

That shows up in course satisfaction rates, in final grades, in stopout rates, and in what students actually choose to enroll in.

The solution to easing those points of friction? Evaluating online courses to make sure they have the indicators of high-quality digital learning.

Inconsistency in online learning

Oftentimes, moving courses online introduces new challenges for instructors while illuminating — or even extending — problems that existed in the traditional course.

In a face-to-face classroom, instructors may notice when students are confused by the syllabus or the instructions for an assignment, and they can respond in the moment to clarify.

Online learning, on the other hand, requires instructors to design courses with more intentionality. Problems need to be anticipated and resolved before the course is exposed to students, and support needs to be baked in.

Denman recalls a faculty member who told him, “I had no idea students were that confused until I taught online.” While students used to nod along in the faculty member’s classroom and quietly ask each other for help, now they email him at 2 a.m. with screenshots of exactly what they’re experiencing.

“For that faculty member, it was really a wakeup call,” says Denman. “Often, we take for granted that when we don’t hear directly from students, everything is all good. In reality, most students will withdraw rather than be that squeaky wheel.”

The good news is that adopting consistent standards makes quality possible at scale, particularly in large-enrollment gateway courses. And anyone can begin to make improvements to support students better. It all starts with an evaluation.

How to evaluate online courses

Denman recommends that instructors look at their courses through the eyes of a student and consider how they would experience it module by module. “Put yourself in their shoes,” he says. What do they see immediately upon login? What is their natural next step? Where are they likely to get stuck in the process?

That’s the approach captured in the Course Review Scorecard for online and blended courses Denman helped develop for OLC. It covers 50 objectives spanning essential and advanced design and course delivery. It is meant for self-evaluation, peer review, or even to hand to students in order to get more detailed feedback.

It looks for:

1. Clear Objectives

Start with the basics. Are learning objectives clear and measurable? Are students aware of what they’re working toward? Do they understand how they’ll be assessed? Are due dates, formats, and expectations predictable?

2. Course Organization and Design

Next, make sure the course is organized in a way that makes sense. Can students easily find what they need? Are instructions and expectations spelled out clearly, or are students expected to read between the lines?

3. Accessibility 

Can all students access the content, no matter their devices, background, learning style, or assistive needs? Consider both small “a” accessibility (can students easily access the content?) and big “A” Accessibility (is it usable with assistive technology?).

4. The Human Side

One major challenge of online learning is fostering a sense of community and connection within the course. Students can feel isolated without opportunities to interact with their instructor and fellow students.

A lack of engagement by faculty is one of the biggest reasons students check out, says Denman. “I don’t know how many times I’ve heard from students, ‘I don’t even know if my professor was there all semester.’ Students can often feel alienated.”

If possible, Denman encourages instructors to go a step further by gathering feedback directly from students, either by talking with them or by being a fly on the wall. He often goes on Reddit to see how students are talking about courses and institutions. He has also approached students directly to ask for more details when he’s overheard them talking about difficult assignments or frustration while on campus.

Using what you learn

Denman says the experience of using the Course Review Scorecard can be humbling in some cases — showing lots of room for improvement — but most courses don’t need a complete overhaul, and faculty don’t need to try to fix everything at once. He recommends identifying the biggest friction points, and starting with those.

“Sometimes just revisiting your welcome message or making your calendar clearer can make a huge difference,” says Denman.

In any case, improving the design is about always focusing on students. An area you invest a lot of effort into because it seems important to you — like polishing videos to perfection — might not make a difference at all to students.

Finally, remember that course design doesn’t have to be a solo sport. Take advantage of the community of online instructors, instructional designers, and other resources both inside and outside your institution.