Classroom Assessment in Web-Based Instructional Environment: Instructors’ Experience

Summary:
The online setting of many of today’s classes presents a unique challenge to educators to accurately assess the learning of their online students. The purpose of many assessments is to monitor progress and inform further teaching, a task that online educators must undertake but in a much different way than traditional teachers in a face-to-face setting. Online classes are often place and time independent. Both asynchronous and synchronous communication allows for a variety of ways to communicate with classmates and teachers. This unique style of holding a class allows online teachers to do many of the same things as traditional teachers and assess by observation, discussion, group collaboration and analysis of student work. These forms of assessment help teachers direct learning. A few recommendations about online assessment include:
• Enable students to self-monitor progress
• Give regular feedback to students
• Support peer learning and assessment
• Design self-assessment practice

The self-monitoring and self-reflection are important because studies show that students who have opportunities to reflect “show greater improvement than those who do not” (141). As instructors of online classes cannot “monitor and react to comments, asides, body language and facial expressions they must employ other techniques to acquire the same information” (141). The flexibility in the forms of communication (include multimedia responses) allows for more thoughtful reflection on the part of the students and more interactive assessments. Online classes tend to assess the student’s ability to solve a real world problem or perform a task (performance based assessment). The one major roadblock to accurate assessment of a student’s ability via the Internet could be the student’s writing skills. Poor writers may be at a disadvantage in an online classroom because they are unable to clearly communicate their learnings. Participating is also more heavily graded in the online classroom because the time is allotted for thoughtful reflection. The traditional role between the teacher and learner is shifted in online settings, paper and pencil tests are becoming less common, and learning is more student-centered and interactive. More study is needed to explore the effects of writing skill in online teaching and assessment.

Response:
This article was my favorite so far in this text because it has clearly articulated all of the things I’ve often thought while taking online courses. As a fairly strong writer myself (and as someone who can type with relative speed) I’ve never struggled to communicate online. I can only imagine the extra effort a struggling writer or typist would have to put into online classes. And, as a teacher, I know that when prerequisite skills are not strong, they often detract from other learning. This is a unique challenge for online educators to ponder and address. I also found it interesting that many online course no longer give paper and pencil tests, or that they time their assessments online. As I reflected while reading this, I realized that some of my first online courses had proctored assessments or timed online exams. Now, it is rare to have an online assessment or “test” of any kind in an online setting. Learning is more often assessed through projects and discussion, as the article reiterated. I could see what a struggle it would be to accurately assess learning in an online classroom. This article served as a good first step for me to being thinking about these challenges and reflecting upon my own experiences.

Liang, X. & Creasy, K. (2004). Classroom assessment in web-based instructional environment: Instructors’ experience. In J. Hirschbuhl & J. Kelley (Eds.), Computers in education (140-147). Dubuque, IA: McGraw Hill.