Assessment Strategies for Online Learning Engagement and Authenticity

For many learners assessment conjures up visions of red pens scrawling percentages in the top right-hand corner of exams and feelings of stress, inadequacy, and failure. Although negative student reactions to evaluation have been noted, assessment has provided educational institutions with important information about learning outcomes and the quality of education for many decades. But how accurate is this data and has it informed practice or been fully incorporated into the learning cycle? Conrad and Open argue that the potential in many of the new learning environments to alter and improve assesment has yet to be explored by educators and students.

In their investigation of assessment methods and learning approaches, Conrad and Openo aim to explore assessment that engages learners and authentically evaluates education. They insist that moving to new learning environments, specifically those online and at a distance, afford educators opportunities to embrace only the most effective face-to-face assessment methods and to realize the potential of delivering education in the digital age. In this volume practitioners will find not only an indispensable introduction to new forms of assessment but also a number of best practices as described by experienced educators.

About the Authors

Dianne Conrad spent thirty-three years teaching and researching, most recently at Athabasca University in the Centre for Distance Education. She is the co-editor of the International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning and is an editorial board member of several international journals. Her research interests include adult and distance education, online learning, and prior learning assessment and recognition. Jason Openo is the director of the Centre for Innovation and Teaching Excellence at Medicine Hat College in Alberta and a sessional instructor at the University of Alberta’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science. His research interests include the professional development of online contingent faculty and the convergence of quality assurance and the assessment of student learning outcomes.

Reviews

A practical, helpful and insightful book full of advice and support for the faculty member seeking to develop meaningful, authentic, formative and summative assessments for and of learning. Written by two of the most experienced professionals in ODFL in North America, the authors’ experiences shine through on every page – making this an immensely readable, useful, and practical collection of insights, practices, and suggestions.

Teachonline.ca

. . . challenges readers to consider their own understanding of online learning and the role of assessment versus a more traditional use of evaluation.

Canadian Journal of Higher Education

Table of Contents

1. Foreword
2. Preface
3. 1. The Big Picture: A Framework for Assessment in Online Learning
4. 2. The Contribution of Adult Education Principles to Online Learning and Assessment
5. 3. What Do You Believe? The Importance of Beliefs about Teaching and Learning in Online Assessment
6. 4. Authenticity and Engagement: The Question of Quality in Assessment
7. 5. Assessment Using E-Portfolios, Journals, Projects, and Group Work
8. 6. The Age of “Open”: Alternative Assessments, Flexible Learning, Badges, and Accreditation
9. 7. Planning an Assessment and Evaluation Strategy—Authentically
10. 8. Flexible, Flipped, and Blended: Technology and New Possibilities in Learning and Assessment
11. 9. A Few Words on Self-Assessment
12. 10. Summing Up
13. Appendix • Other Voices: Reflections from the Field
14. References / Index

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). It may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that the original author is credited.