Week 2 - Quality and Evaluation

It's now officially Week Four - I'm still here and still in 'catch up mode'...
During Week Two we were asked to answer three questions about evaluation. I've found these have taken a bit of time to think about and I've realised there's a lot more to 'evaluation' than I had previously considered.

So, on to the questions and my answers:

Why is evaluation important to you and how do you define it?
To get my thoughts in order I had to consult a dictionary or two re 'evaluation"
The definition that best worked for me was found at dictionary.com under 'programming'...

"2. The process of examining a system or system component to determine the extent to which specified properties are present."

Other definitions were around the ability to 'form an idea', the 'value', 'worth' and the ability to 'assess' something. To me these could be subjective...
I prefer the definition above as (to me) it seems more objective - ie: here is the criteria, has it been met or not?

So why is it important to me?
Seems to me that if evaluation is done correctly it would be an efficient tool which would indicate if I am meeting the intended purpose.

What sort of evaluations mentioned on the presentation are familiar to you already and why?
Currently (in our predominately F2F teaching/learning environment) we use both formative and summative evaluation.
To explain:
Formative: Around weeks 3 - 6 we ask the students to evaluate the programme so far (ie. how are they finding the course/programme, do they know where to find support, are they enjoying the content etc). This is done via an online BlackBoard survey which is anonymous and only the collated stats and comments are visible. The results are circulated to the tutors.

Around mid-semester we ask students to evaluate their individual tutors. This asks specifics re tutor teaching methods, feedback etc. This is paper based and is collated by an independent person so once again the information collected is anonymous and the collated stats and comments are sent to the individual tutor.

Around the middle of each term we hold F2F meetings with a student rep. from each class and ask them to put forward suggestions/concerns that their class/group may have. This is summarised as minutes and available to both tutors and students.

Summative evaluation: At the end of each programme we ask students to evaluate the programme via an online Blackboard survey.
We then have a verbal discussion with the group as some prefer to talk in a group atmosphere rather than writing their thoughts down...both of the above are circulated to tutors.

Finally, statistics on course course completions etc. are summarised and explained/commented on in an Annual Programme Report(APR). The APR is circulated to all staff within the department, agreed upon and then sent to the Academic Development Centre (ADC) for comment/review.

The last two summative evaluations I also consider to be formative - ie forming an idea of what should change for the next intake of students.

Why is quality important in eLearning?
Personally I find this q. difficult to answer. To me eLearning is just another form of teaching/learning. There needs to be quality in both F2F and eLearning.

I wonder if I am being naive with this thought?