Assessment - Different Methods of Program Evaluation

This paper introduces the thoughts and effects of changing the evaluation procedure for evaluating content and quality of courses and study programs at the engineering college of Aarhus. There will be a description of the new evaluation method the pro’s and the con’s in changing from a fixed procedure, to a working tool in education enhancement. In the spring of 2010 the board of studies at Engineering College of Aarhus proposed a change of the evaluation method for all of the engineering bachelor studies. Before that time students did evaluate their conception of course quality by using a standard evaluation procedure in evaluating the courses they have attended at the end of each term. The procedure consisted of two steps, first a midterm evaluation held orally, with the purpose of adjusting differences between teacher and student expectations of course activities, secondly a written evaluation with 6 questions addressing the students motivation and skills, the learning goals of the course, the workspace, the course curriculum and work load, the learning activities, and the relevance of the course In short this evaluation method focused on static half year observation on the student comprehension of the course, the teacher and the facilities. In many occasions the feedback was best viewed as documentation of facts. The main purpose for developing the new evaluation procedure was to evaluate course issues that could give valuable contribution to the teachers on-going refinement of the learning activities in a course, or to the overall structure of the terms and the education as a whole.