Course Evaluation in e-Learning by a Comparative Analysis of Two or More e-Learning Courses

This paper presents an overview of quality and usability evaluation in e-learning. At the same time, it shows a method for evaluating e-courses by comparing the attributes of two (or more) e-courses using a detailed checklist. In this empirical study, several groups of students evaluated two e-courses with an evaluation survey consisting of a large set of quality and usability related attributes. The results of the evaluation indicated that this kind of comparative analyses of e-course attributes can increase the insight of designers and evaluators regarding the elements of e-courses that need improvement. Furthermore, the use of comparative analysis provides a more qualitative view if selected attributes of two e-courses are inspected side by side after a quantitative analysis of the results of evaluation with a survey. However, it was also found that the results of students’ surveys are partly dependent on the context and modality of such comparative evaluation.