Staff Development in Learning-centred Evaluation of Computer-facilitated Learning Projects

This paper reports on a complex educational development project aimed at improving the evaluation of student learning in teaching activities supported by new technologies. The acknowledged shortcomings in this area were addressed by a staff development programme which assisted participants to develop and carry out an evaluation plan with the help of a mentor. Twenty evaluation studies were undertaken, from universities from around Australia. The development of evaluation plans was facilitated through the use of a Learning-centred Evaluation Framework, which assists in the framing of appropriate and answerable evaluation questions, by breaking down the lifecycle of an educational innovation into phases and explicitly considering different aspects of learning. The paper also summarises the characteristics of each evaluation study carried out in terms of the discipline, year of study, study mode and IT-type. It then evaluates the outcomes of the project as a whole, and provides evidence of the benefits that participants gained from the project.