The online evaluation form was available for students during the final two weeks of the semester, when it was linked to several announcements and messages within the Blackboard course management system.  Evaluations were submitted anonymously by 12 of the 22 students enrolled in the course.

A summary of the responses follows.  Note that not every student provided an “open-ended” response to each question.

Category 1: Overall Course Management

1. The course as a whole was:

EXCELLENT (5) ----- (1) POOR
Range:  4-5
Average: 4.9
4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

I truly loved this class.  I learned so much about new technology that will be key in my chosen field of Communications!

This course was very well organized and by being so - it has allowed my schedule to become more organized and timely.

Great course!

Fun class and very educational. You think you know so much about the Internet and in the class like this you find out how wrong you were and how much more there is to learn.

STRONGLY AGREE (5) ----- (1) STRONGLY DISAGREE
Range:  4-5
Average: 4.8
5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5

Everything really fit with today's view of the Internet and its effects.

Some were a tad boring, but educational none-the-less.

I really learned a lot!!

I liked the topics - interesting and touching different aspects of the internet.  Again, lots of learning possibilities.

STRONGLY AGREE (5) ----- (1) STRONGLY DISAGREE
Range:  4-5
Average: 4.7
4, 5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5

A little too time consuming.

Coming up with unique questions every week was challenging, but I enjoyed the conversations between class members.  I also would rather write a paper than take a test, so I appreciated that as the assigment for the final.

A great way to see other points of view.

Yes, but the papers were too long.

I learned as much from the other students and the student-led discussion groups than I did from the materials themselves.

I especially liked the discussion board - talking to other classmates and being exposed to many different opinions on every topic as opposed to just reading the reports.

STRONGLY AGREE (5) ----- (1) STRONGLY DISAGREE
Range:  3-5
Average: 4.6
4, 5, 3, 5, 5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Burks really has high expectations.

I liked that we were supposed to do our own thread and respond to at least 3 people - not overwhelming but enough for some good discussions.

STRONGLY AGREE (5) ----- (1) STRONGLY DISAGREE
Range:  5
Average:  5.0
5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Syllabus and corresponding documents were very specific as to what is required and what should be done for the week.  I never was confused as to what I should be doing.

No need to comment here, I believe my comments are agreeable to this factor.

I always knew what to do next.

It was very well organized and very clear on what is expected of us.

6. I learned things in this course that will be very useful to me in the future.

STRONGLY AGREE (5) ----- (1) STRONGLY DISAGREE
Range:  4-5
Average: 4.8
4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 5, 5, 5

RSS Feeds, Podcasts, great links to free software - all stuff I will use in the future!

Even though the computer/Internet activities are changing daily - I still learned a great amount of information that will be a good foundation to build off of.

I already am applying things I learned every day.

Just because I could browse the net and e-mail doesn't mean I knew a whole lot.  In retrospect, I was kind of in the dark about many aspects of the internet.  Learning about blogs, podcasts, and all this stuff we learned about put me more in the 21st century.

STRONGLY AGREE (5) ----- (1) STRONGLY DISAGREE
Range:  4-5
Average: 4.7
5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5

Certainly

Absolutely!

I think we all knew that but the course made us realize how much the internet impacts people’s lives.

STRONGLY AGREE (5) ----- (1) STRONGLY DISAGREE
Range:  4-5
Average:  4.8
5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5

Absolutely

Burks really expects a lot from students.

The fact that we didn't just do readings but had to discuss them did that.

STRONGLY AGREE (5) ----- (1) STRONGLY DISAGREE
Range:  3-5
Average:  4.7
5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 3, 5

For me, they exceeded the objectives.

I don't know what I was expecting, but I sure learned a lot that will be useful in the future.

My expectations were fairly neutral in the beginning.  I had no idea there was so much to learn about the Internet.

I think it exceeded them.  I thought we would just talk about the things I already knew but I learned so much new stuff here.

10. The instructor’s teaching style was appropriate for an online course.

STRONGLY AGREE (5) ----- (1) STRONGLY DISAGREE
Range:  5
Average:  5.0
5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

This was the best online class I have ever taken!

Excellent in my opinion.

Burks rocks!

STRONGLY AGREE (5) ----- (1) STRONGLY DISAGREE
Range:  5
Average: 5.0
5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Absolutely

Always.

STRONGLY AGREE (5) ----- (1) STRONGLY DISAGREE
Range:  5
Average: 5.0
5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Certainly

Burks was always online!  Did he ever sleep?

STRONGLY AGREE (5) ----- (1) STRONGLY DISAGREE
Range:  4-5
Average:  4.8
5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5

Learning is always stimulating to some degree.

Professor was very engaging.

He always brought in new papers and ideas for us.

STRONGLY AGREE (5) ----- (1) STRONGLY DISAGREE
Range:  3-5
Average:  4.8
5, 5, 3, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

I appreciated the rubric for paper.

I liked having a rubric for each assignment.

STRONGLY AGREE (5) ----- (1) STRONGLY DISAGREE
Range:  5
Average:  5.0
5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Feedback and grade posting was very timely.

Did he ever sleep?

Always always always!  Burks seems to be everywhere at any time!

STRONGLY AGREE (5) ----- (1) STRONGLY DISAGREE
Range:  4-5
Average:  4.9
5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 5, 5,

Sometimes he was late grading the weekly assignments, but that was understandable, since he is so busy.

STRONGLY AGREE (5) ----- (1) STRONGLY DISAGREE
Range:  5
Average:  5.0
5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Yes.

YES, QUITE OFTEN (5) ----- (1) NO, HARDLY EVER
Range:  5
Average:  5.0
5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Yes, posts were provided to newspaper articles and other web sites of relevance to the topic of the week!

Always!

STRONGLY AGREE (5) ----- (1) STRONGLY DISAGREE
Range:  5
Average: 5.0
5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

I believe the scale busted on this one 5+++

The professor taught me so many things that were new to me.

Burks knows more than any instructor I have ever had!

EXCELLENT (5) ----- (1) POOR
Range:  5
Average:  5.0
5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Great instructor, I really felt I got to know him through this course!

Burks rocks!

Great instructor!  So knowledgeable and nice.

21. There were positive interactions between the instructor and the students.

ALMOST ALWAYS (5) ----- (1) ALMOST NEVER
Range:  5
Average:  5.0
5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Always!

COMMUNITY SPIRIT (5) ----- (1) ISOLATION
Range:  4-5
Average:  4.7
4, 5, 5, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

It seemed like sometimes students had their favorite people to reply to and didn't really try to answer anyone else's questions.  Except for Julie C., she was a great "community cheerleader!"

We were like a team all working together to learn the material and from each other.

I never have taken a class where the students were so engaged in discussions with each other.

TOO LARGE (5) ----- (1) TOO SMALL
Range:  3-4
Average:  3.1
4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

Just right!

STRONGLY AGREE (5) ----- (1) STRONGLY DISAGREE
Range:  4-5
Average:  4.8
4, 5, 5, 5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Extra credit assignments were great hands-on applications.  These could have even been made as regular assignments.

I'm getting to the 5 mark...

No big deal.

25. My learning style is appropriate for an online course.

STRONGLY AGREE (5) ----- (1) STRONGLY DISAGREE
Range:  1-5
Average:  4.4
5, 4, 1, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 3

Yes I like learning online best.

STRONGLY AGREE (5) ----- (1) STRONGLY DISAGREE
Range:  3-5
Average:  4.7
5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5

The hands-on assignments were great to use the new technology that I never would have done on my own.

Absolutely!

27. What did you like most about this course?

The instructor’s availability.

Very informative, great instructor

I think it would be the subject matter - this is very important and isn't going away.  And, as I said before, it is relevant to my degree.

Instructor... pace of work needed to be completed.. subjectmatter

The instructor does an excellent job of introducing and discussing various new technologies.

I enjoyed the interaction with other classmates.

The vast spectrum of information contained in the readings which were then discussed through student-led groups.

All the interactions.

I liked the student-led discussions.  The additional perspective gained was invaluable and would not have been possible in a traditional course where just a few TYPE A personalities usually dominate classroom conversation.  This is a course perfectly suited for the online format.

fun extra credit assignments and podcasts

It would have been nice to deviate from the Pew reports every once in a while, but they were so comprehensive, I can see why you would fashion this course around them.

I don't think online instructors realize the time and reasearch that goes into foumulating good discussion topics and moderating the responses in addition to responding to others.

Nothing, really!  Except maybe trying to get people to answer discussion questions some weeks.

not much really

Amount of message board posting.

The 2000-word papers. I would have liked to do presentations using various forms of online media. (Example: podcasting w/PowerPoint slides, Web pages and/or Web logs that present a public policy topic, etc).

That is going to end in a few weeks.

I did not like the requirement to include student comments in the two papers.  It was difficult to 'fit' such comments into my papers and felt awkward.  I also am not a fan of word count papers.  I write very succinctly and feel I said what was important in each paper in about 1200 words, but then had to fill with another 800+ words to meet the word count minimums.

Writing papers  :)

YES (2) ----- (1) NO
Range:  1-2
Average:  1.2
2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

Distance is a problem, The topics could be spread out more, we repeated some topics and seemed to run out of fresh comments after mid-term. Student led teaching is a fine idea but in the real world doing research for three other papers, while keeping up with the weekly postings while researching and writing your own paper along with your other classes, family responsibilities and work is a lot.  It feels as if education, even online education is for the young with no responsibilities. Online education is more convenient as far being able to do it in your own home in your pajamas but the time required may put it out of  reach of returning older students.

Yes, I blend online and traditional classes, but I don't know if a class about the Internet would have been as effective if it were taught in a classroom!

Nothing, really!  I loved it!

As a student I didn't see any need for improvement - it worked for me and I not only learned information but I enjoyed myself also.

I think the course is perfect the way it is.

I can’t think of a thing.

I work and have a family, so I have to take all my classes online.

???  Fine as is.

Online school is the only thing that works for me.

Make sure Burks doesn't stop teaching!