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Evaluation & Assessment
Educators and educational institutions are adept at evaluation and assessment. Using this existing expertise within the context of online learning is critical to its success. The range of methods and tools for online learning should have a similar range of assessment instruments and approaches. Assessment has a direct impact on how instruction is delivered, and where students place the focus of their energy. If online learning is important to a school, then there will be a commensurate effort at assessing its efficacy.
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1. How does the school evaluate its online learning programs, teachers, and courses in order to ensure their alignment with the school’s mission and goals?
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2. How often are online learning programs, teachers, and courses re-evaluated?
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3. What standards will be implemented to address accountability and accreditation of an online course and an online teacher?
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4. How do schools document the online courses students are taking?
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5. Do online courses use a variety of authentic assessment strategies — moving beyond the dominant forms of assessment such as individual quizzes, tests, and papers?
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6. Do students create artifacts for portfolios as part of the assessment process?
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7. Are students being evaluated for a variety of “21st Century skills” (e.g creativity, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, global awareness) in their online learning?
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8. What is the level of student involvement in their own assessment and in the assessment of other classroom community members?
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9. What new research on the topic of assessment should be considered for effective online learning course design?
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10. Given the rapid pace of change in online learning technologies, how does the school adapt its online learning assessment strategies over time?
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11. How does the school discourage cheating on online assessments?
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12. How does the school ensure the validity and reliability of online assessments?
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13. Does course content include pre-tests, self-tests, and formative evaluation to support individualized instruction and student awareness of progress?
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14. Are all stakeholders (e.g. students, teachers, parents) assessed for satisfaction with the online learning experience?
Brandi Mason
We’ve usually had a “scope and sequence” of content and skills that form the basis for progress along a more or less sequential line. But online learning will tap more into an associative way of thinking and less into a linear—and more ‘assessable’–form of assessing student progress.
One overarching question that seems to be missing is:
- What control relating to evaluation and standards will a school have to give up in order to successfully engage with online learning partners?
Most online course providers are so large at this point, that many of the questions asked on this page are going to be difficult to get answers to, and without answers could convince some schools to give up on online learning.
Do schools need to evaluate privacy issues surrounding student evaluations when working with online learning partners? How are grades and evaluations communicated and stored? Do the privacy policies of the partner match up with the privacy policies of the school as well as complying with laws or regulations?
Evaluation and assessment is a critical question and must be thoughtfully pursued. Our need for new pedagogical knowledge and understanding should not be stopped, however, by our need to better understand how to most effectively assess what the new frontier presents! Live and learn as we always have!!