Continual Quality Improvement of Online Course Delivery Using Perceived Course Learning Outcomes

The objective of an education programme is to enable its learners to successfully achieve the programme outcomes. Programme outcomes can be effectively mapped into the courses within a programme. The achievement of the course learning outcomes can therefore be used to indicate the achievement of the programme outcomes. In an effort to ensure the continuous quality improvement of the education services offered, the Open University Malaysia uses a survey instrument to capture the perception of learners on the contributions of the various parts of online course delivery in their achievement of the expected learning outcomes. Such learners' perceptions are seen important in sustaining their motivation and persistence in completing their studies. There are 19 items measured using 5-point Likert scales and one open-ended response. The items cover the online course delivery parts including course module, workload, resources, learning tasks, online forum interactions, assessments, learning platform, overall online course organisation and the learning experience. Additional items measuring the learners' motivation, attitude, engagement and satisfaction were also included. The targeted population in this study are all the learners in 40 fully online courses offered in January 2017 semester. The findings help the university to identify the perceived effectiveness of the aspects of the online course delivery and the correlations between the items to the learners' motivation, attitude, engagement and satisfaction. Multiple regressions were also used to analyse the relationships. The output is an online course evaluation system that facilitates continual quality improvement efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR