This case study provides an opportunity to apply the strategies you just have learned.

Read the following case study. Then answer questions about it in the spaces provided. Click "View the Answers of Your Peers" if you want to compare your answers with those of other users of OERL. Click "View the Expert's Answers" if you want to compare your answers with those of experts.

Keep in mind that because evaluations are complex tasks, the expert's analyses are not the only plausible ones that can be made.

In contrast to the previously discussed scenario, which presents a fairly ideal project context for exploring an effect, the following case presents more challenges for the design.

Background

A large public university has eight science departments (biology, chemistry, etc.). Each department has an introductory course that all students must take first. Within a department, the courses share a common scope, sequence, and learning objectives, though individual instructors are given latitude on instructional methods. All instructors are required to administer a year-end, university-developed satisfaction questionnaire to their students. It consists of scaled items designed to measure how interested the students were in the material and how satisfied they were with the instructor's teaching. The results are archived in a database for 7 years.

All instructors are also required to administer a final exam, but they have freedom over the exam's format and content. They are also free to develop additional assessments during the course. As a result, there is considerable diversity in assessment procedures across courses. For example, some instructors grade solely on midterm and final exam scores; others grade on weekly or biweekly problem sets. Some instructors' tests are composed solely of multiple-choice questions; others require constructed responses.