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Course Websites and their Contribution to Students Evaluation of Instructors and their Courses

Author Affiliations

  • 1Ariel University Center of Samaria, Ariel, ISRAEL

Res. J. Management Sci., Volume 2, Issue (3), Pages 1-7, March,6 (2013)

Abstract

In this study we examined how course-specific websites (CSWs) that accompanied mathematics and statistics courses affected students' evaluation of these courses and their instructors. The central purpose of this study was to identify how specific elements of CSWs contribute to students’ ratings of their success in the course and faculty effectiveness. First we designed a student questionnaire to determine to what extent specific elements of the websites were perceived as contributing positively towards student success in mathematics and statistics courses. These questionnaires were administered to over five hundred students who enrolled in 29 courses taught by 13 lecturers. We then collated website evaluation data with student ratings of the instructors who had designed and maintained the CSWs to identify how student ratings of websites affect faculty effectiveness ratings. Our data indicate that although CSW represent a potentially significant means of helping students to cope with the challenges of mathematics and statistics courses, not all instructors were able to utilize this potential. These results suggest that the instructor's subject expertise represents a necessary but not sufficient condition for effective CSW construction. Unless instructors receive detailed guidance regarding "best practices" in website construction, they will continue to build sites that under-utilize the potential of web technology and make a limited contribution to student learning.

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