Online Assessment

Online assessment, how to find the perfect rule!

 

 

Introduction

Assessments are imperative for a course, because it validates the learning of an individual. The key to learning is the student at the end of the course can reproduce the topic taught to him. Hence it is the Instructor’s responsibility to design, define and manage assessment methods that will give confidence to the Instructor, learner and the general public about the credentials of the student.

Within a class-room environment you have a host of assessment methods, furthermore you have both formative and summative assessments during a course. This needs to be replicated within a virtual world. I will be discussing how to develop successful online learning assessments.

Multiple Choice Questions

The most common online testing tool is multiple choice questions. This has been made popular by various LMS’s as well as online tools. Furthermore the ubiquitous nature of this testing and ability to self-populate results has made it easy to control testing. I will like to add here if control is the only reason these tests are used then it is a poor solution.

I personally feel that for certain courses multiple choice questions are useful however they need to be written well.

Key features of Multiple choice tests are:

·         Timely

·         Proctoring

·         Randomization

·         Complexity

Traditionally multiple choice questions were developed primarily to remember certain elements of a course (recall), they would only test low level thinking, (as defined by Blooms Taxonomy) however I believe it is possible to develop high-level thinking through multiple choice questions. This I have experienced when taking Microsoft exams, a lot of the questions are multiple choice and require analysis, synthesis and evaluation as well.

High level multiple choice questions can be developed using aids like well-written scenarios, charts, maps and case studies. An example of this is:

You work for Simple Solutions IT, Recently your company has migrated from server 2003 to server 2007. During the migration there was a power cut which delayed the migration. Our main cabling technician Tony had to leave due to his wife going into labour. Once the power was back we carried on with the migration. Testing was brief due to needing to re-open the business.

Q.1) Monday morning you receive a call from the business you provided support for and they can’t access the back-up server, what do you think is the most likely reason and why?

Ø  The ISP has blocked your IP address, because of the migration of servers

Ø  The cabling wasn’t completed as Tony who had the information left early, they forgot to re-connect the back-up server.

Ø  Due to migration the IP addresses have changed and no-one has reset the DHCP server.

What is interesting about the above question is that the student will need to know about each of the possible answers in order to rule them out as well as know about the correct answer. This requires the student to have comprehensive knowledge of the subject allowing her to analyse the problem scenario and apply their comprehension to the question in order to find an answer. Similarly questions can be created requiring both evaluation and synthesis.
This one question requires the student to comprehend, apply and analyse the situation in order to provide a correct answer. Using the higher level skills as stated in Bloom’s taxonomy.
The following is an excellent pdf file demonstrating how multiple choice questions can be defined in correlation to blooms taxonomy: http://teach.ucf.edu/files/2010/12/Examples-of-Multiple-Choice-Items-at-the-Levels-of-Bloom.pdf

Assignments
Assignments can be set an offered within an online environment, useful tools to support this include instant messengers, FAQ board, previous examples and discussion on assignments. Online assignment tools and e-portfolios have made this easier to manage.

Discussions

Online discussions are a useful, it has the added advantage of being able to widen participations to anybody and everybody. These can be assessed both synchronously and asynchronously, discussion comments are stored for reference sake as well.

Simulations and Online Recordings

Where you are required to provide some form of demonstration it is possible using tools like, Skype, adobe connect and WebEx to allow demonstrations to be assessed via checking tasks are done properly. With regards to software tasks the learner can use screen share to allow the instructor to assess the situation.                                                                                                                                                                                                  

I will add that online recordings could also support teaching observations and consultancy type roles like dentistry, allowing observations via the technological mediums listed above. Language learning can be assessed live or via archived recordings as well.

I personally designed an online learning course, of which I assessed the students completing technical activities via screen capture recordings, screen-prints, video recording when building computers and photos of certain tasks. Other artefacts I included, were Skype sessions of building PC’s, video discussions and online whiteboard group project design. I found using online resources helped me greatly when designing multiple artefacts for their portfolio.

Conclusion

Due to advancement in technology coupled with the adoption of this technology by the masses the transition to online assessment is not difficult. The above tools mentioned provide a solution to various assessment methods. The key is to consider the best assessment methods for your course outcomes, and then select the traditional assessing method and then look for an alternative online assessment tool. There are certain online assessment methods which may provide a better assessment solution than traditional face to face methods. When developing a blended learning assessment plan both online and face to face methods should be considered as an equal and then the decision should be made, explaining which assessment method is best for the learners.