Evaluation of quality is difficult for an online class and nearly impossible for a blended course. There are so many moving pieces to the puzzle. Typical rubrics are a snapshot in time of how the course is put together. This does pose a challenge for blended courses because the quality of the course can improve or degrade depending on the instructor and the students. If the instructor is highly engaged the students may be more engaged. If something happens to the instructor to make him or her less attentive the students may pick up on that and become disengaged. If the school's basketball team makes it into the Final Four, it may distract students while they are in the middle of their studies or the instructor while he or she is preparing for the next face-to-face meeting. There could be some judgement at the end of the course, but only the instructor and students have been through the entire class and each has his or her own bias as to course quality.
I like the author's suggestion about the instructor completing a journal throughout the semester and jotting down goals and the results of those goals to determine if they were realistic for the next time through the class. It is easy to forget between semesters how much time was spent in grading a certain activity and how much time to allot for the same or similar activities in future semesters.
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