The Evaluation of Course Quality Through a Service Template

This article reports on initial findings of the Template Project, a project researching ways of evaluating post-graduate courses offered through the medium of distance education. It has taken an evaluation tool from industry and re-designed it so that it can apply to distance education courses. The question as to whether or not a tool initially located in the service industries is appropriate for education is examined as are the alternative paradigms of evaluation. A Popperian approach to evaluation is offered as the paradigm within which the Template Project's approach to evaluation should be located.