November 2004 — Exclusive
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Designing Distance Delivery Courses
Periodic assessments throughout a course evaluate progress. Presumably at course termination, all continuing participants obtain a final assessment. The potential for improving on this paradigm through distance delivery is great. Initial assessments identify individual strengths and weaknesses in a topical area. Then students should be individually directed toward suitable tasks, which allow strong areas to be slighted and weak areas to be emphasized. Ultimately, students work through a body of knowledge to a suitable understanding. By stressing individual needs, all course participants can reach a satisfactory level. Efficiency is gained by eliminating the time historically spent dealing with material that is already understood.
Test characteristics. Virtually any type of written test can be administered by distance delivery. True-false, multiple choice, multiple answer, ordering, short answer, problems, and essay questions all fit into the typical structure. True-false and multiple-choice questions are easily scored mechanically, while multiple-answer and ordering questions are slightly less amenable to machine scoring. Short-answer and problem questions of one or two words or numbers can be scored mechanically, but the challenge is great due to the difficulties of machine recognition. Essay questions remain beyond the scope of machine grading for the present. However, pattern recognition technology makes it possible to check essays for casual spelling and grammatical infractions.
Rigor
An underappreciated dimension of education is rigor. Few people would argue that rigor is inappropriate in education. Interestingly, one must look to the fourth definition of rigor offered by Merriam-Webster to find a definition of “exactness.” As such, rigor is taken to mean “strict, particular and complete accordance with fact or a standard.” Furthermore, it is said to be “marked by thorough consideration or minute measurement of small factual details.” A synonym offered for “exact” is “correct.” Insuring that students achieve a correct understanding of details and an ability to use that understanding effectively is a worthy educational outcome. A desirable feature of distance delivery is making things understandable rather than difficult. Rigor should not be confused with difficulty. We must seek rigor with ease.
Integrity
Cheating problems date to antiquity. Distance delivered courses introduce new opportunities for creative cheating. The presumption in any educational system is that students gain and demonstrate knowledge appropriately. Of course, the mechanisms for cheating in distance deliver courses need to be examined. Cheating techniques include prior knowledge of assessments, inappropriate collaboration, breaking into systems and plagiarism.
Advance exam-question copies. Certain exam types, regardless of their delivery mechanism, are susceptible to corruption through advanced knowledge. In particular, simple fact-based questions often presented as multiple-choice, true-false or short answer questions best discriminate between knowledgeable people and those lacking the knowledge if specific questions are unknown in advance.
