Escaping the Comparison Trap: Evaluating Online Learning on Its Own Terms

This new article in innovate (free registration) argues that online courses need to be evaluated in a way that is appropriate to the medium. Several resources are noted that are useful.

I’m in favor of evaluating online courses and programs using methods that make sense for the medium. I’m sensitive to the trap of building an evaluation system that essentially waves the courses through without challenge. But I think the resources cited can provide decision-makers, like AAC, the tools they need to make a real assessment of online courses.