Dear all,
The February CAA article is entitled:
"Effective reporting for online assessment --- shedding light on student
behaviour"
by David Schofield & Helen Ashton from the School of Mathematical and
Computer Sciences at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. The authors
describe the central role of effectibve reporting to ensure that the teacher
remains cental to the learning process. A summary of their article is as
follows:
"Summary
Online assessments can offer students individual and independent learning
experiences, which can greatly enhance the teaching and learning process.
Feedback, as an important factor in the learning process, is a feature, in
one way or another, of many learning theories; through conversation
(Laurillard [1]) or through reflection (Kolb [2]). "Action without feedback
is completely unproductive for a learner" Diana Laurillard [1]
In online assessment immediate, or synchronous, feedback to a submitted
answer can take a number of forms - for a good classification see Mason &
Bruning [3]. As valuable as synchronous feedback is, there is also a place
for asynchronous feedback that supports student reflection and bolsters
learning. In a traditional classroom setting most feedback is of an
asynchronous nature and one way of supporting the provision of asynchronous
feedback in an online context is through the use of post-assessment
reporting. Whilst many assessment systems have reporting facilities, they
often do not provide the level of detail required to support the learning
process in depth. This article seeks to describe some of the work from a
project known as PASS-IT [4] and how effective reporting can enhance
formative online assessment.
References
[1] Laurillard D. (2001), Rethinking University Teaching, 2nd edition,
RoutledgeFalmer
[2] Kolb D.A. (1984), Experiential Learning, Prentice-Hall, Englewood
Cliffs, New Jersey
[3] Mason B.J., Bruning R., Providing Feedback in Computer-based
Instruction: What the Research Tells Us
http://dwb.unl.edu/Edit/MB/MasonBruning.html
[4] PASS-IT website, http://www.pass-it.org.uk"
The article itself is now available at
http://mathstore.ac.uk/articles/maths-caa-series/feb2005/
Thanks to Robert for putting the article on line.
This month's article raises issues around the reporting of results that many
VLEs would claim as one of the advantages they bring to the academic
community. Anyone in our coummunity with experience of using VLEs for
assessment with particular reference to the employment of the VLE's
reporting systems should contact me to discuss an article in this series.
This CAA series is now being published in print by MSOR so that articles can
receive even wider coverage. Please give serious thought to writing an
article for the MSOR community. Also, if anyone would like to tell the
story of on-line assessment more generally within their own experience
please contact me to discuss it.
With regards,
Cliff Beevers
Professor Cliff Beevers, OBE,
Director of the CALM Project for Computer Aided Learning in Mathematics and
co-director of the Scottish Centre for Research into On-Line Learning and
Assessment
A: School of Mathematical and Computing Sciences, Heriot-Watt University,
Riccarton, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS.
T: 0131 451 3233
F: 0131 451 3249
W:http://www.calm.hw.ac.uk and http://www.scrolla.ac.uk
This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed.
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