Course Evaluation on the Web: Facilitating Student and Teacher Reflection to Improve Learning

The School of Physiotherapy at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Western Australia, recognizes that learning is influenced by many variables. Therefore, evaluation of teaching and learning should focus on changes in knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behavior. In 1999, physiotherapy faculty at Curtin University developed Course Evaluation on the Web (CEW, pronounced "cue"), a Web-based system that broadened the possibilities for effective evaluation within a learning community. CEW was initially piloted in one class with one hundred students. Since that time, CEW has been developed and used annually in sixty entry-level courses and twenty postgraduate courses. Five hundred students, fifty teachers, and ten program managers have participated in the CEW process. The School of Physiotherapy uses CEW for student reflection on learning, instructor reflection on teaching, and administrator response to student feedback to improve programs. CEW is used to monitor student satisfaction with a variety of aspects of their educational experience. CEW is part of a process of continuous quality improvement that involves the entire learning community in order to enhance the quality of teaching and learning. This article describes the development of CEW and the benefits of using it for evaluations. (Contains 3 figures.)