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Online assessment: The basics

© Amanda Kendle

With an increasing use of online technologies for course delivery, it is only natural that we are exploring ways to assess students online. Formative or summative, requiring multiple choice responses or full-text answers, completed in a controlled lab environment or from their home – there are many possibilities for online assessment today and no doubt more that are yet to be devised.

Broadly speaking, online assessment is any assessed task carried out in a web-based environment, which may include activities such as students selecting appropriate answers, typing short answers or extended paragraphs, manipulating graphs or labelling diagrams.

Online assessment can be particularly appropriate for formative experiences, where students are given instant, comprehensive feedback on their responses without penalty for incorrect responses. Variants of multiple-choice type questions are most suitable for this, but questions requiring longer responses can also be used with students given a model answer to compare with their own.

Summative assessments, which will count towards final marks, can also be carried out effectively online, and similarly can be objective, multiple-choice tests or more complicated assessment tasks. For example, the online environment allows the use of multimedia in questions, such as coloured diagrams or slides, short video clips or manipulable graphs. Some research is now suggesting that many students perform better when taking written tests online as opposed to handwriting their answers, as they can edit and rearrange their responses and are able to type more quickly than they can write.

Of course, there are also drawbacks to online assessment. Security of test materials can be an increasing problem and a technical challenge, prior to, during and after a test. Being assessed online can also be a disadvantage for students with lower levels of IT skills. Other potential problems can arise from the reliance on technology: for example, what happens if a server crashes mid-test and all student responses are lost?

As with any element of teaching, online assessment tasks should have a sound educational grounding and correspond to the objectives of the unit. Online assessment is a constantly evolving area, but careful preparation can ensure that an online assessment task is a good learning experience for both students and teachers.