Emergent Evaluation: an Initial Exploration of a Formative Framework for Evaluating Distance Learning Models

Evaluation of student learning is becoming ever more important in higher education, partly because of increasingly performative structures within universities, and partly as the result of a developing interest in rolling development of curricula and teaching resources. Historically, for both face-to-face provision and distance learning, such evaluation has generally been captured by end-of-module questionnaires. Whilst these evaluative media may capture some reflections of student learning, they are often poorly focused, and rely wholly on summative perspectives which are captured at a point remote to the learning process itself. The current paper reports on an initial investigation centring on developing a formative framework for evaluating distance learning modules. It is distinguished from typical summative questionnaire evaluations by the collection of “live” feedback from students as they undertake a module, allowing for insight and feedforward to develop materials as students undertake the module. This is achieved by using a modified version of an approach called Lesson Study, a collaborative planning and evaluation tool which originated in Japan (Lewis et al., 2009).