Colleges evaluating courses online

Students and faculty at more than 35 higher education institutions recently

completed the first phase of a pilot program that allows students and faculty

to fill out course evaluations and program analyses online.

Schools, including George Washington University and numerous community

colleges nationwide, on Tuesday completed the first phase of Coursemetric,

designed by E-Curriculum Inc. and the League of Innovation.

The World Wide Web-based course evaluation and program analysis tool

uses the Internet to survey students, instructors and administrators regarding

academic programs, course content, instruction and technology, and compiles

the data into reports. The results can be accessed via the Internet almost

instantaneously, but protect the anonymity and privacy of those surveyed.

"We are excited about eliminating handling 10,000 pieces of paper each

term ... [And] I am also eager about the ability to access comparative data,"

Gail Ives, director of institutional research at Mott Community College,

Flint, Mich., said in a release. "We do not currently have a frame of reference

for how we are compared to other parts of our school or other community

colleges."

Based in Berkeley, Calif., E-Curriculum (www.e-curriculum.com) provides

Web-based tools for schools, and partnered with the League of Innovation

(www.league.org), a non-profit educational consortium of more than 700 community

colleges, to launch the Coursemetric program. The pilot is scheduled to

run through June.