Assessing Online Students

Kinds of Assessment

Assessment of distance education may include  some or all of the following:

• Personal interaction with teaching staff
• Personal interaction with administration staff
• Completion of set assignment work (written, photographs, sound recordings, video)
• Submission of special projects and activities
• Submission of check lists signed off by “authorised persons” (eg. Horse riding check list)
• Submission of results from external courses (taken beyond the distance education, e.g. Fitness Leader Cert)
• References or documentation to verify work experience from previous employers
• Attendance at residential (on campus) workshops
• Verified participation in other activities (e.g. industry meetings, seminars, conferences)
• Exams conducted in real time via the internet (Traditional or automated eg. With flash tests)
• Exams conducted with an adjudicator
• Exams or tests conducted as open book (perhaps time limited).

Assessment Guidelines

Distance education presents different problems not faced in traditional education. Some of these have to do with assessment:

• How assessment is managed
• How assignment are submitted for assessment
• What form of assessment is given
• Whether or not the student is assessed by one or several tutors
• When assessments are due, and when they are returned
• Whether or not to wait for a marked assignment before progressing to the next lesson and so on.

Distance students can be quite anxious and unsure of what to expect, and how things are handled. They may expect to follow the same procedures as they did in traditional schooling, college or university, such as formal assessment in the classroom where students take assessment together under the eye of a single teacher.  They may expect to write essays with given deadlines, or to be assessed only at the end of their course. To assist the student through the maze of questions and decisions, the school should provide the student with clearly stated assessment policies and procedures.