eCollege Study Finds Institutions Moving to Online Evaluations to Assess Quality
DENVER – May 19, 2003 – eCollege(SM) [Nasdaq: ECLG], a leading provider of technology and services for online higher education programs, today announced it is releasing research showing a growing number of institutions are moving or planning to move their course evaluation activities from paper-based to online methods. Survey participants cited improved efficiency and timeliness of feedback to be among the key factors driving the need for an online evaluation process.
Based on eCollege’s survey of 500 institutions, nearly 23% are either conducting course evaluations online or plan to do so before the end of 2003, with another 24% reviewing this option in 2003. The growing trends in online evaluation activity are further demonstrated through eCollege’s milestones:
· eCollege’s eCourseEvaluation(SM) product supported more than 100,000 online evaluations administered through its system during the Spring 2003 term.
· To date, eCollege has helped more than 250 institutions of varying sizes address their individual course evaluation needs through its eCourseEvaluation technology.
“Over the years, institutions have struggled with efficiently collecting student feedback about course and teaching quality, and distributing the results to administrators and faculty in a timely manner,” said Oakleigh Thorne, chairman and CEO of eCollege. “eCourseEvaluation ideally meets these needs, helping administrators effectively manage their programs, faculty and ongoing improvement activities, while also providing data critical for the accreditation process.”
As a key part of eCollege’s Program Administrative Solutions, eCourseEvaluation ideally addresses the primary reasons survey participants gave for wanting to conduct course evaluations online. This product enables institutions to easily administer questionnaires to large volumes of students, automatically generate statistical reports of the results, and efficiently disseminate the results to both administrators and faculty. eCourseEvaluation supports online courses, on-campus courses and enterprise-wide implementations.
eCollege’s 2003 Higher Education Evaluation Methods Survey will be presented at the Association for Institutional Research national conference on May 20, 2003 in Tampa, FL. To receive more information about the survey, please contact eCollege at surveys@ecollege.com.
About eCollege
eCollege [Nasdaq: ECLG] is a leading eLearning technology and services provider to educational markets. The Company designs, builds and supports some of the most successful, fully online degree, certificate/diploma and professional development programs in the country. eCollege’s customers include publicly-traded for-profit institutions, community colleges, public and private universities, school districts, and state departments of education. The Company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Denver. For more information, visit www.eCollege.com.
eCollege and eCourseEvaluation are service marks of eCollege. All other trademarks and service marks or registered trademarks or service marks are the property of their respective owners.
