COURSE CONTENT COVERAGE AS A MEASURE OF INSTRUCTIONAL QUALITY

In order to measure instructional quality, several methods have been p roposed in the literature, among them student performance on achieveme nt tests and student ratings of the quality of instruction. Both metho ds have in common that they tend to ignore course content coverage, al though this is an important determinant of instructional quality. In t his article a procedure is described which is used to assess students' actual learning activities. This procedure, the Topic Checklist, make s use of student ratings. Reliability, validity, and utility studies w ere conducted. The results suggest that the Topic Checklist is a relia ble and fairly valid procedure to evaluate course content coverage and to detect problem areas in a course, providing feedback useful for ca rrying out improvements.