Assessing online

In research conducted in 2002, online assessment was identified by James, McKinnis and Devlin (2002) as one of the key assessment challenges facing higher education. It has the potential to transform the type of tasks required of students and enable a broader range of skills to be assessed in more flexible and timely ways. Most importantly, it can enable academic teaching staff to provide feedback to students more quickly. Although the use of automated online tests and quizzes is not new, other options have become available more recently. Online assessment can involve:

• the doing of all or part of a task online
• the delivery of all or part of a task online
• the provision of part or all of the feedback online

Irrespective of what is involved, the design of online assessment tasks should be underpinned by the same principles that apply to any other assessment.

The following activity is designed to help you:

• note the possibilities available at Deakin for using online assessment
• increase your awareness of the issues associated with assessing online
• become familiar with the various ways in which academic staff at Deakin have used online assessment effectively.

Activity

1. For an overview of possibilities available at Deakin, and issues that have arisen, see this brief PowerPoint presentation (79 KB). For more detailed information about the use of DSO for assessment, contact the Institute of Teaching and Learning.
2. Go to the CSHE website for a discussion of some of the issues to consider when adopting online assessment, 34 strategies you could adopt, and some helpful advice on where and how to get started.
3. To find out how some academic staff at Deakin have used online assessment, go to the STALGS project cases website. These cases reflect a variety of approaches to assessment from a broad range of discipline areas as can be seen below.

   Christine Armatas - Going wholly online in Psychology
   Jenny Betts - Online testing in DSO
   Leicha Bragg - Professional practice and mathematics: Designing an inclusive program
   Phillip Clarke - Supporting learning online in Contract and Competition Law
   Kristin Demetrious - Using role play as an approach to online assessment
   Brian Doig - Using assessment as a strategic tool for learning
   Carolyn Doyle and Sandra Pyke - Developing online research skills for law students
   Ismet Fanany - Teaching Indonesian online
   Jan Fermelis - Teaching and assessing business communication online
   Susie Groves - Learning about numeracy across the curriculum in a wholly online unit
   Peter Haeusler - An online approach to project-based assessment in politics.
   Peter Hanna - Assessing students online in the biological sciences
   Bev Jackling - Using commercial software to do real time examinations online
   Hans Lofgren - Designing for Policy Studies online
   David Lowe - Using the digital environment to enliven 'great debates' in history
   Pam MacLean - Pathways to teaching about genocide and holocaust online
   Vince Marotta - Online assessment in Sociology
   Ross Monaghan - Facilitating online communication and assessment in Public Relations
   Kevin O'Toole - Working online in politics
   Simon Pervan - Effective use of communications in a wholly online unit
   Grazyna Zadjow - Studying sex, crime and social justice wholly online

Reference

James, R., McKinnis, C. and Devlin, M., 2002, Assessing learning in Australian universities. Melbourne: Centre for the Study of Higher Education, The University of Melbourne.