Assessment tools - Why Do A Study?

First of all, maybe the skeptics are right. Many studies of technology use in college courses are a waste of time: for the readers, for the investigators, and especially for the students and others who are asked to respond to badly written surveys and meandering interviews.

You shouldn't take for granted that the study you are contemplating (or already doing) is worth doing. We hope that this site can help you decide whether it is and how to do a study that will be worth your time, your audience's time (if the audience includes people other than yourself), and the respondents who you'll be asking to help you gather data.

Or perhaps someone has asked you to do a study of a course, or courses, and suggested you come to this site. Maybe you are really skeptical about this whole thing, or can't quite make out what they're talking about. You might find it useful to skim this site first, or to take a detour and take a look at this short essay about the scholarship of teaching.

Reasonable Goals for a Study
Not all of the following goals are relevant to every study (and, to repeat, sometimes the wise idea is not to do a study). However, here are some of the more common situations that lead to studies:

• You've already put a lot of work into making something technology-related available to your students (lab software? A web site? Quiz system? New online resources? Discussion site?). However, you're not sure whether students are using it, and whether it was really worth the effort.

• You're concerned that some students in your course(s) aren't getting it, despite (or because of) the ways you're asking them to use technology.

• Technology is changing fast and unfamiliar problems are appearing in courses and colleges more frequently than before, with more at stake if those problems aren't solved.

• Someone is feeling uncertain about a particular group of students, a particular new technology, a particular program, a piece of curricular materialÉ

• Someone has told you, "We have to do a self-study for accreditation (or the state, or the alumni, or someone else) and we thought that we'd focus on technology use."

• To report on a grant, or to increase the chances of getting a grant.

• You like doing research, and it should be fun to learn something about your own course, your own students and (in that light) your own field.

• It might help you make a case for promotion, or tenure, or getting a better position if you can discover something interesting about technology use in education in your field, and publish your findings.

Of course you may already be convinced this is a good idea and that the study will actually be worth the effort. If part of your problem is to convince other, more skeptical people to help you, here are some of the frequently made objections to devoting time and money to evaluation, and some responses.