The Invisible Universe Online: Evaluation Summary of a Distance-learning Astronomy Course for Secondary Science Teachers

Abstract

This paper presents the evaluation summary for the Invisible Universe Online, an Internet-delivered distance-learning course for secondary science teachers, which focuses on astronomical origins and multiwavelength astronomy. Developed through support by the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) and the Space Infrared Telescope Facility Education and Public Outreach (SIRTF EPO) programs, the course was implemented to test approaches to distance learning for use in future teacher flight training for SOFIA. This paper provides an overview of the strategy used for course evaluation, along with an extensive summary of the results of this evaluation and description of lessons learned through the development and implementation of the course. A related paper also appearing in AER (Keller & Slater 2003) provides a detailed overview of the course content and structure. The course Web site is (uri: http:∕∕btc.montana.edu∕-ceres∕origins∕SP02∕).