Assessment and learning technologies: An overview

Abstract

Assessment pervades the learning process. This paper provides an overview of the application of technology to support and enhance diagnostic, formative and summative assessment. The focus is on examining how it can replace what already exists, improve the functionality, catalyse a redesign of the process and in some circumstances, make possible what was previously inconceivable. The paper considers formal and informal individual learning environments, group settings and assessment at a national or international scale.

Integration of learning technologies into teaching within Fijian Polytechnic Institutions

“…Institutions in higher education are making a substantial investment in technologies to support teaching and learning (Bebell, Russell, & O'Dwyer, 2004). The rapid advancement of learning technologies in higher education is attributed to the realisation that learning technologies can support, and innovate teaching (Fernán-dez-Ferrer & Cano, 2016) and enhance various forms of assessments (Farrell & Rushby 2016). Drent and Meelissen (2008) argue that the deployment of learning technologies into the teaching and learning environment brings benefits for students, such that they are able to develop skills for searching and assessing information, collaboration, communication and problem solving.…”

Assessment worlds colliding? Negotiating between discourses of assessment on an online open course

“…However, although Higher Education has always had a role in the development of informal and lifelong learning, there is little sense of 'conceptualisation of the place of assessment in learning beyond the academy and the contribution higher education can make to it' (Boud and Falchikov, 2006, p. 399). As a result, although approaches to the assessment of informal learning, particularly within an online environment and even within the rapidly growing world of OER, have been drawn primarily from theories of assessment in the formal learning sector (Farrell and Rushby, 2016) there is little evidence that the assessment of OERs has drawn on the lessons from research and practice in e-assessment within the context of formal ODE. At the same time, very few theoretical frameworks or examples of assessment from informal learning, and certainly none from theories of lifelong learning or authentic assessment, have been applied to the assessment of OERs.…”

An investigation of the validity of course‐based online assessment methods: The role of computer‐related attitudes and assessment mode preferences

“…Within this context, a number of authors have recently identified the investigation of the validity and reliability of course-based online assessment methods as a current research need (Ardid, Gómez-Tejedor, Meseguer-Dueñas, Riera, & Vidaurre, 2015;Farrell & Rushby, 2016;Fonolahi, Khan, & Jokhan, 2014;Hewson, 2012;Meyer, Innes, Stomski, & Armson, 2016). The current lack of research on this topic may constitute a factor contributing to the relatively sluggish adoption of online assessment methods to date, particularly within the social sciences and humanities (Guàrdia, Crisp, & Alsina, 2016;Hewson, 2012;Warburton, 2009) and in "high-stake" summative assessment contexts (Bennett, Dawson, Bearman, Molloy, & Boud, 2017;Boyle & Hutchison, 2009;Clarke, Lindsay, McKenna, & New, 2004).…”