Evaluating Electronic Assessments - Essay Example

Running Head: E-Assessment Evaluating E-Assessments [Client’s Name] [Client’s Affiliation] Learning is a major concern in the modern society. As individuals grow, get educated, and become integral parts of the community, what they learn from school and by what degrees they apply what they learned become important. This is the very reason why learning assessments are designed and implemented by learning institutions and various agencies on education. Learning assessments attempts to evaluate whether learning institutions achieve its goals and objectives pertinent to learning as a part of the accreditation process and as means to improve approaches and methodologies in learning (Haken, 2006). In other words, what is assessed defines and corrects what are taught and learned. Thus, assessments to some degree define learning institutions. The importance of assessments in modern day education is hard to ignore. In the recent years as the advances in information and communication technology (ICT) is becoming more pronounced, learning assessments evolved to take the form of e-assessments or electronic assessments. Technology is an integral part of learning. Technology is responsible for the speed with which knowledge and information is acquired in formal and informal learning settings. Students are more exposed to the use of technology in their learning processes particularly outside the classroom where they have the access to commercially available technologies. With the move to integrate technology in education and learning comes the move to assess students’ learning using the same technology. Learning assessments that are done with the aid of computers and information systems are termed as e-assessments. Description and Structure According to Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC, 2007), a UK-based organization that promotes ICT in education and learning, e-assessment is “the end-to-end electronic process where ICT is used for assessment activity, and the recording of responses”. E-assessments are used for a variety of reasons which include reduction of costs, determination of effective classroom management, process evaluation, provision for additional assessment, and to produce meaningful feedback on processes that are implemented (Booth et al, 2003). This means that the constructions of e-assessments vary according to the questions that the assessor wants answered although majority of the reasons why e-assessment is employed is because of the objective approach of the method. However, the employment of ICT in the assessment of various learning programs is fairly new and not very popular (Crisp, 2007). E-assessments do not only focus on the assessment itself but also to the manner of delivery of these assessments which include computer hardware and software programs. The use of computer hardware is an integral part of any e-assessments. Computers that have low RAM and has low hard drive capacity may not work best for data distributions and evaluations requiring large volumes of data. In the same manner, computers that have outdated software programs may not integrate well with e-assessments that need software-specific programs such as those that require flash players and java animations. On top of that, e-assessments that are run on incompatible computers may not function properly or would not function at all. E-Portfolio Digital forms of data generation require digital storage that would efficiently handle the data, help the evaluators process the data, and keep the integrity of the data for future references. This takes form of an e-portfolio. An e-portfolio is just like a typical electronic portfolio that allows security and storage of specific e-assessment files for future reference and use (QCA, 2007). With everything stored in digital form, employing e-portfolios allow easy access and easy categorization of data and information in a storage device no larger than the usual computers or laptops. Usually, e-portfolios can be commercially produced software platforms or can be custom-made according to the needs of the organization. Apart from data storage and distribution, e-portfolios can also be used to track patterns and evaluate results for consistency and validity of the acquired and processed data. E-portfolios also allow different people from different places to access different level of files according to their needs since it can be easily integrated in a computer network. This would save time and effort for the researchers in the future especially if their researches were done previously. At the same time, issues on plagiarism and reliability can be eliminated from the evaluation. Flexibility E-assessments are like typical assessments that are designed to generate selected responses or constructed responses but allow greater number of styles, methods, and structures which include multiple choices, multiple response, hotspot, sequencing, and drag and drop options (Ashton, 2008). In other words, e-assessments paved way to more flexible approaches to assessments by using technology to its full extent. More modern approach to e-assessment drawing selected responses incorporates animation, multimedia, and images in the assessment. This is a great deviation from the cruder forms of assessments employed prior going electronic. These modern structures of e-assessments may seem simple but they require expertise and experience on complex programming and data handling to be able to create and design a reliable and valid e-assessment. This is one of the main reasons why constructed response questions that are automatically marked are less common in e-assessment systems although there are few e-assessments that are marked automatically. This is mainly because programming automated marking on answers to open-ended questions is a very difficult task. Consequently, the automation feature of the structured e-assessments makes it very fast to create and mark. The ease with which e-assessments are made and can be varied is advantageous for developers as well as for the policy makers. Because they are easy to create, distribute, and mark, policy makers can look into various perspectives of the same issue in able to validate the results of previous e-assessments. Some examples of e-assessments are those that are: administered, completed, and administered using the internet and the intranet (or other local networks); assessments that are comprised of automatic and manual marking methods delivered through the internet or the intranet; electronically scanned assessments that are distributed through the internet or other local networks; and other related assessment methods that uses electronic and communications technology in order to create, distribute, mark, and validate. Reliability and Validity Like any other forms of assessments, e-assessments must be reliable and valid, as well as possess all the integrity required for the assessment to be reliable and valid. Using the manual method of assessment opens a lot of opportunities for plagiarism and malpractice. The usually long process associated with the manual method of assessment is vulnerable to inconsistencies and thus, unreliability. With e-assessments, these concerns have significantly decreased as well as decreased technical failure and loss of data and information during the assessment process. Reliability of e-assessments means that the methods of e-assessment produce the same verifiable results all the time with little or no deviations. Validity on the other hand means that the e-assessment correctly reflects the issues that are assessed by the assessor. Reliability and validity of the e-assessment are achieved through consistent and constant monitoring of the designs and the scoring methods (JISC, 2007), checking of the information system for issues on construct and content (Crisp, 2007), and making sure that the e-portfolio contains up-to-date information about the methods employed in various e-assessments for consistency. Case Examples Some examples of e-assessments are available from the published e-assessment guide from Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (2007; 57-86). For a brief review of the fairness, reliability, validity, and flexibility of e-assessments, this paper will evaluate two cases from the list which are the e-assessment case of Stockton Riverside College and Northumberland County Council Adult Learning Service. Stockton Riverside College moved into a new location about four years ago and decided to integrate technology in their learning and evaluation processes. The college also took efforts to implement a massive change in the college’s ‘culture’ in order for the students and teachers to work comfortably with the newly installed technological systems. Despite the employment of full technology in its learning and evaluation, Stockton Riverside College had been implementing e-testing years before it has moved to its new location and has been using various systems to implement these e-tests. The issue that the college faced rests in the inability of these different types of systems to synchronize with each other within the existing network. This results in the ineffective and non-maximal use of e-tests. Nonetheless, the college was confident that it will be able to find a good e-portfolio platform that would integrate various systems given its familiarity with the e-tests that it had implemented over the years (QCA, 2007; 86-87). Northumberland County Council Adult Learning Service was considering putting up an e-portfolio to take full advantage of its use of the appropriate technology in promoting learning and assessment. The organization uses different programs in different locations to aid adult learners in their learning process. It has already used and implemented various e-tests on their sites and they are seriously considering looking for ways to make use of technology to increase the efficiency of their electronic processes. The e-portfolio platform was provided by Durham University Business School and the e-portfolio has evolved into a Managed Learning Environment where Northumberland has able to include different institutions to share its e-portfolio platform. Presently, Northumberland is refining its staffing concerns as well as the delivery methods of its e-assessments employed in its e-platform as the bulk of data it receives, stores, and distribute has significantly increased over the years. The organization is also looking at ways to increase the capacity of the e-portfolio and address the current issues at the same time. Case Evaluations Both cases show how efficiency is achieved when using e-tests, e-portfolios, and e-assessments. Stockton’s case shows how important e-assessments are in the College’s desire to provide better avenues for learning and evaluation. By employing e-assessments on its learning, it can be said that Stockton Riverside College was able to determine that the school facility needs technology to implement effective learning and teaching methods. The evidence for this assumption lies in the desire of the College to move into a new location that provides better access and integration to technology. This goes to show that the College has some degrees of trust on the e-assessments flexibility, reliability, and validity for it to consider future implications of the assumed e-assessment results. Northumberland’s case on the other hand shows how e-assessments help processing e-tests on various locations and how e-platforms can be useful in managing the storage and evaluation of large volumes of data and information. Storing large volumes of data in e-platforms help organizations implementing e-assessments check the reliability and validity of their assessments from a reference data set. This way, organizations can modify or change their evaluation systems or restructure their e-assessment questions to better gauge the issues being considered. Conclusion It is good to understand that the concept of e-assessment is nothing new. It just uses more complicated system to answer more complicated requirements. With the aid of e-assessments, learning and learning evaluations can be done efficiently, effectively, and reliably with the assurance that the rigors of scientific processes that the data goes through provides a more reliable insight towards the nature of the data acquired. Ashton, Helen. (Oct 2008). Exploring e-Assessment: A Practitioner’s Perspective. JISC. Accessed on June 5, 2009 from http://www.elearning.ac.uk/features/eassessment Booth, R., Clayton, B., Hartcher, R., Hungar, S., Hyde, P., & Wilson, P. (2003). The development of quality online assessment in vocational education and training (Vol. One). Leabrook: National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Crisp, G. (2007). The e-assessment handbook. London: Continuum. (Bundoora Library Call Number: 371.260285 C932) Haken, M. (2006, January). Closing the loop-learning from assessment. Presentation made at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore Assessment Workshop. Princess Anne: MD. Joint Information Systems Committee. (2007). Effective Practice with e-Assessment: An Overview of Technologies, Policies, and Practice in Further and Higher Education. Accessed on June 3, 2009 from http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/themes/elearning/effpraceassess.pdf Martell, K., & Calderon, T. (2005). Assessment of student learning in business schools: Best practices each step of the way. Tallahassee, Florida: Association for Institutional Research (Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 1-22). Qualification and Curriculum Authority. 2007. e-Assessment. Guidelines to Effective Practice. Accessed on June 9, 2009 from http://www.efutures.org/docs/guide.pdf Read More