How do I start using online assessment?
“The key for successful online assessment is to have the right procedures in place”
(1st year report, Questionmark pilot, University of Bristol, 2006)
How do I implement online assessment?
As for all other types of technology delivered assessment, careful planning and preparation is recommended when introducing online assessment. A useful way of viewing the assessment process is as a lifecycle divided into six stages;
This process is applicable irrespective of which type of assessment is being designed although the tasks involved in each step may have a different level of complexity. Following are brief description about what each stage involve. Follow the links within these description for further information.
Planning your assessment
The first stage of thee-Assessment lifecycle involves making the following decisions
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What are the aims and objectives of the assessment? the intended scale? e.g. small pilot with a unit, or a large cohort of students?
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Who needs to be involved? e.g. Head of Education? Unit Directors? Administrative staff? e-learning advisors?
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Who will coordinate and help with the development of the questions and tests?
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Who will co-ordinate all the activities and people involved?
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Timescales - when is the first assessment?
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Considerations e.g. how will this change be managed? Is suitable support available ?
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How will the use of e-assessment be evaluated?
Next you can begin drafting a project plan (available from ESU), which will include activities and people involved at each stage.
Authoring and developing tests
The first step in the development of an online assessment involves:
- Managing questions (creating and identifying questions to meet the testing/learning objectives)
- Developing a question bank, deciding how to categorise questions
- Setting up an assessment involves selecting the questions from the bank
- Choosing the template, i.e. how the assessment will appear to students (are the questions randomised? Do they appear one by one or all on one page?),
- the final assessment’s outcome, i.e. constructive feedback, final score or a message to guide students to a further study.
Preparing to deliver and delivering the assessment
In this phase you will need to look at
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Finalising the questions ( peer reviewed or checked) and the assessment.
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Students communication and instructions
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Setting up the room if the test is synchronous and arrange invigilation.
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Liasing with central support and local IT support to ensure that support is available during the test
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Monitoring student progress
Managing results and Evaluation
The typical workflow for managing results varies depending on the type of assessment, whether it is formative and low stake or high stake and whether the results need to be moderated or can be sent to the students immediately after the test. It is recommended to check this with the Exam Office. At this stage you will need to:
- identify who will be responsible for exporting the results, who should have access to the results on the system
- decide whether to export the results by candidate number or username
- decide the format (excel) in which results should be generated and circulated and made available to students
- archive results locally
Gather information on what went well or wrong and how things can be improved. Things to consider:
- student experience of online assessment
- validity of the questions and the test
- support model
- technical infrastructure