I think online assessment is an important tool for teaching and learning nowadays as education is getting more advanced and innovative. It can be used as informed progress and guide learning, and measured outcomes and success of the students that didn’t exist 10 years ago. Students tend to be more self-managed and active learning and participation because of the renovation of the education. It is a good signal. Active learning should always be better than someone who forces you to learn. For instance, I was in Hong Kong high school before I came to Canada. When I went to classes that I was interested in, I never came late for those classes and actively ask questions for the concepts I didn’t understand. So, I could get a good grade for those classes (Active learning). How about other classes which I wasn’t interested in? I don’t remember how many classes I failed. But the main point is that I had no incentive to study those classes, but my parents forced me to do so (Passive learning). Moreover, because of the online assessment, teachers should have a better “understanding the processes and outcomes of student learning, and understanding the students who have done the learning” (Stephen Segrave and Mary Rice). They should easily know the level of student’s ability. What teachers really have to do through online assessment? They only have to give instructions to students for how to assess. Most of the time, students will learn from doing through online assessment. So, learning tends to be more independent than 10 years before. Online assessment increases use of information and communications to enhance learning experience. I believe it should increase the quality of teaching and learning.
One of the examples is WebCT exam, before the development of online assessment, paper exams will be provided by instructors. The process of creating paper exams is time-consuming and costly. Moreover, it is not flexible at all. For example, the date of examination, time, and place are fixed. If instructors want to change a few questions on the exams, they have to go through the whole process again. Furthermore, the time for marking the exams is huge. However, when the WebCT exam emerges, it changes the whole conventional environment. For instance, automatic marking; there is no fixed time for the exam that students can choose the time they want; it can help instructors to manage large volume of workload, etc. Therefore, I believe WebCT can maximize efficient and effective learning. By the way, WebCT can also provide more timely feedback for students to get further improvement.
Reference
Online Assessment: http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/assessinglearning/03/online.html
Segrave. S. & Rice, M. (2003). Designing online assessment of student learning. Retrieved February 18, 2006 at: http://www.deakin.edu.au/teachlearn/cases/files/2003oltf/resources/eddesign/assess01.doc
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I agree with Ricky. In my opinion, online assessment is a useful tool. As Ricky mentioned, online assessment not only can be used as “informed progress and guide learning”, but also “increase the quality of teaching and learning”. He took Webct to be an example. As benefit of webct, it provides more timely feedback, decreases the cost, and has the flexible schedule. As I know from the above (his blogging and Model 6), online assessment gives us the good opportunity to touch new technology. Actually, those techniques accord with the current development. With the development technology, we also need to update our ability. Online assessment is the new way that is different from the original assessment. Although it has a little bit disadvantages, online assessment can use its benefits to remedy its shortages.
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