Evaluation of a Third Year Distance Education Course: Monetary Economics. Working Papers in Distance Education, No. 1.

An evaluation of Monetary Economics, a course offered to distance education students of the University of Queensland in 1979 and 1980, was conducted in 1981. Monetary Economics is an innovative course designed and prepared using principles of educational technology specifically for distance education, and for the planning of effective interaction between the subject, teacher, and students. The aims of the course were to enable students to learn at their own individual pace and to increase the level of activity and involvement in the learning process. Audiotapes, workbooks, and small group syndicate discussions were used to achieve these aims. This report begins by describing the design strategy and major course features, including theoretical considerations, subject area considerations, student characteristics, design principles, and course structure. This description is followed by an explanation of the evaluation procedures and the results of the evaluation, which focused on student performance and their assessment of the course, course efficiency, cost effectiveness, and the consistency of results. It is concluded that the effectiveness of Monetary Economics is directly attributable to the effectiveness of education technology, which employed sound principles of learning to solve a problem in course design. A copy of the student questionnaire is appended. (30 references) (DB)