Online assessment

It is useful to bear in mind that what is sometimes referred to as an assessment method is, in fact, only the condition in which the assessment takes place and thus only one of several choices to be made in assessment design. The term ‘online assessment’ mainly describes the conditions under which an assessment will take place – it does not describe the method by which the students will be assessed. Assessment conditions establish the parameters of assessment but within each of these assessment conditions a number of assessment methods may be used. Reflecting on the purpose, timing and assessment mix should help with decisions regarding assessment conditions.

• Affords convenience and efficiency to students and teachers as assignments can be submitted and accessed anytime, anywhere.
• Results, especially for objective tests can be instantaneous, and feedback can be automated and delivered on a conditional, generic/individual basis.
• Online applications and virtual learning environments permit a high degree of customisation which allow for the design of sophisticated formative and summative assessment (eg. adaptive tests, tailored feedback, conditional progression).
• Most online learning systems allow for student activity to be tracked in terms of student/cohort performance by question, submission attempts, Turnitin scores etc. In this way, the metrics available online enable teachers to use this data to tailor and target their teaching and feedback more effectively.
• As students are expected to use their own computers, individuals may have access to technology that support specific learning disabilities.

• The more sophisticated the assignment, the greater the degree of planning and organisation involved, which can be managed through digital competence and technology support.
• Since students are working at a distance they may not have easy access to support when they encounter problems.
• Technology-related issues such as platform and device agnosticism can mean that some teachers are wary of using online assessment.
• The time, resources and costs associated with setting up the technology and providing training can be prohibitive.
• Possible issues of academic misconduct, since students are working at a distance.

Online applications and virtual learning environments permit a high degree of customisation which can significantly enhance the learning experience. For instance, lecturers can create adaptive tests, where students receive questions based on how they answered previous questions. When used for formative assessment, the assessment can be set up in such a way that students receive instantaneous feedback – immediately after they submit their test. This feedback can be tailored to the grade they received, their answers to the questions or a link to the class notes, further reading, etc. Internet-based apps and virtual learning environments allow for a range of feedback to be incorporated. In addition to being constructively framed, the feedback should be timely irrespective of whether it is pre-loaded or written after marking the assessment. When it comes to online assessment, issuing clear assessment guidelines, marking criteria, offering mock assignments/exams, providing assessment samples and managing students’ expectations are key. Often, the method (eg. blog) and mode (eg. Moodle) of assessment are new to the student, so they need to inducted into /familiarised with the process in a clear, timely and supportive manner.

The more objective and closed-ended forms of assessment such as multiple-choice questions tend to be more reliable tools than open-ended assignments such as writing a blog or building a portfolio. Online assessment can be a thorny issue as access to technology is not uniform, though above average in the LSE student community. Ensuring that deadlines are well-spaced out will help students who prefer to use campus computing facilities to work on online assessments. Assessment questions can be shared with academic peers to check their clarity, and should be approved by the department and external examiners if required by departmental practice.

It is good practice to pilot all aspects of the technology, including checking to see that it is accessible on a number of devices and formats, to ensure that students are not penalised for having specific devices. Marking and moderation (particularly for more open-ended online assessment) should follow departmental practice. Since online assessment data can be captured and stored, there is usually a helpful data trail for external examiners to review, and external examiners can often access information from their own devices at distance.

Most online learning systems allow for student activity to be tracked in terms of when an assignment was submitted and the number of submission attempts. There is also fairly fine-grained data available such as how many posts were viewed/replied per student; the range of activity over a period, and a breakdown of performance by question. With group-based assessments such as wikis, it is possible to view it by version and contributor, giving the assessor a good idea of how the work had developed and the quality and quantity of input from the various team-members. Tools such as Turnitin are commonly used to check that submitted work is original. While these tools provide some measure of plagiarism detection and a check on referencing, examiners should still make their own checks and not become reliant on the software. The risks that apply to take-home assessments such as collusion, cheating and plagiarism also apply to online assignments. The solution is always to try as far as possible to design academic misconduct out of the assignment and this is no different for online assessment. Teachers can also contact the Eden Centre's Eden Digital team for specific guidance if they are planning to use an online assessment.

There are practical design issues to consider when using online assessments to assess students who are either physically impaired; have mental health difficulties; specific learning differences, or Autism Spectrum Condition. Wherever possible design issues should be addressed in the initial course design phase. The Accessible Assessment area of this toolkit provides further information about how this might be achieved. This is a guide and should be treated as such. In all cases the experiences of individual students can be diverse. You should always consult the student’s inclusion plan as well as speaking to the student directly. The discussion in this section is drawn on the work of the Inclusive Practice community at Sheffield Hallam University who we wish to acknowledge and thank.