E-assessment
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What is E-assessment?
The 3 key ways of engaging with e-assessment are:
- Using quizzes
- Assessing other e-tivities e.g use of blogs, wikis
- E-submission
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How can E-assessment benefit/support learning and teaching?
E-assessment can be used to:
- Diagnose knowledge
- Motivate learners by giving timely and accurate feedback
- Identify students at risk at an early stage
- Record and report progress
- Ensure consistency in marking
- Save staff time in marking
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Strengths and weaknesses of online assessment / CAA:
Advantages
Advocates for the online assessment models argue that it not time-consuming but rather time-saving, (McCormack and Jones 1998, Ryan et al 2000) and identify these advantages:
- time saving; as assessments can be created using software tools and adapted and reused as needed. They can be distributed and collected using a web-based system which saves development and distrubution time
- reduces turnaround time; as the systems anables assessments to be corrected by computers. Reduces time further enables students to use the knowledge obtained from corrected assessments to adress further assessments sooner
- reduces resources needed by replacing human resources with computer resources
- keeping records of results that can be stored centrally and assessed by interested parties, such as students and staff
- increasing ease with which data can be used as corrected assignments corrected and stored electronically can be analysed easier and the data can be used in spreadsheets and other statistical packages
Disadvantages
McCormack and Jones (1998) identifies these disadvantages or limitations with CAA when used online:
- implementation of CAA system can be costly and time-consuming
- construction of good objective tests requires skills and practice and so is initially time-consuming
- because of the above, testing of higher order skills is difficult
- hardware and software must be carefully monitored to avoid failure during examinations students require adequete IT skills and experiences of the assessment type
- assessors and invigilators need training in assessment design, IT skills and examination management
- a high level of organisation is required across all parties involved in assessment (academics, support, staff, computer services, administrators)
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Assessment Types
There are a number of Assessment types:
- Diagnostic
Assessments which are used to identify student needs and to determine prior or existing knowledge as well as strengths and weaknesses. Often diagnostic assessments occur prior to another learning experience.
- Self-Assessment
Assessments which assist individual students to review their own performance, to assess their own learning and to obtain feedback which can support future learning and reflection.
- Formative Assessment
Assessments which assist the student's learning by providing feedback during the learning process. In automated assessment, this takes the form of objective questions with feedback given to the student either during or immediately after the assessment. It may be monitored by the tutor or used purely for self-assessment.
- Summative Assessment
Assessments which are designed to evaluate student’s overall knowledge and understanding of the material presented in the unit. They give a quantitative grading and may be given as assessed coursework or as part of an end of unit examination.
There could also be different 'assessors':
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