Distance education is a discipline that offers solutions to some important education problems. Distance education, contribute to the solution to the problems such as; inequality of opportunities, lifelong education, the implementation of a series of individual and social goals that can contribute to and benefit from educational technology and self-learning. In distance education, methods of measurement and assessment must be consistent with the objectives and contents of teaching. A major interest of formative assessment is determining the students’ learning level of each behavior in the interested unit. In summative assessment, performances of students on some units are measured broader than formative assessment. A computerized adaptive testing, CAT, is the test managed by computer in which each item is introduced and the decision to stop are dynamically imposed based on the students answers and his/her estimated knowledge level. In CAT applications, students do not take the same test. Despite item numbers and properties of items are different for the students; the precise of measures improves in positioning students on an ability or success continuum in CAT applications. In CAT applications, questions answered by a student depend on the student's ability or learning level. In item response theory, there are some models to estimate a student’s ability level, such as three-parameter logistic model. Cheating in exams or other academic assignments can be defined as use resources not allowed to use or having someone else to take exams or assignments. Some precautions must be taken about cheating such as a live proctoring, using web cams, and using a plagiarism detection program. (Abstract by authors)

The article explores the challenges of assessment in open distance learning (ODL). The authors argue that ultimately assessment should be about improving the quality of teaching and effective learning. It should be based on making expectations explicit and public, setting appropriate criteria and high standards for learning quality, systematically gathering, analyzing and interpreting evidence to determine how well performance matches expectations and standards, and using the resultant information to document, explain, and improve performance. However, getting all these variables to work in ODL presents mammoth challenges. How can ODL lecturers validate and authenticate students’ written work? How can they tell whether the students’ submitted work sufficiently reflects their knowledge and understanding? South Africa has inherited an unequal, racially skewed and inequitable educational provision from its apartheid past. This poses serious challenge for assessing quality. The article therefore seeks to understand these context-specific challenges of ODL assessment at UNISA. (Abstract by authors)

Currently E-learning systems do not provide a tool to authenticate student continuously during online assessment, this raises the probability of cheating. Many proposed solutions use different biometric techniques to identify and authenticate student continuously, they use different techniques with different measures. This paper proposes certain criteria that should be available in any proposed biometric technique to be fitted with e-learning architecture and continues authentication of student during online assessment. This paper investigates some proposed solutions to see compatibility of those solutions with the proposed criteria. (Authors' abstract)

This paper reports on a project undertaken at The Open University which set out to explore academics’ notion and practice of authentic assessment. The findings revealed that authentic assessment is not only a difficult notion to define but it is also problematic to collate features within an assessment task that define it as authentic assessment. An electronic questionnaire was constructed to investigate academics’ understanding of authentic assessment. The tutors’ perceptions of authentic assessment fell into two distinct areas: one that is associated with real world scenarios and the other linked to the construction and marking of an authentic assessment task. The findings point the way towards increasing the understanding of this concept in order to avoid making assessment appear on the surface to be more like real life but with the students still perceiving the questions to be rather artificial and contrived. (Abstract by authors)

This study explores the transfer of assessment practices from f2f to online environments by college instructors, with a particular interest in the factors influencing assessment in online learning settings. Assessment is a critical aspect of the learning environment, and considerable research has suggested various methods of formative and summative assessment for the f2f classroom. However, there has been less research into the ways in which these traditional forms of assessment are being incorporated into the online learning environment, or whether they may even be appropriate. This study investigated the perceptions of seven higher education faculty, with experience teaching courses in both the f2f and online environments, regarding the transfer of assessment practices between the two delivery formats. Specifically, this study explored the transfer of assessment practices from f2f to online environments by college instructors in two higher education institutions: a four‑year college and a two‑year community college. The authors propose that an understanding of both assessment for learning and of learning is needed to support effective faculty practices and enhanced student learning in online courses. Consequently, it is important to study the impact of assessment strategies and techniques faculty employ to better understand various instructional practices that effectively centre on enhanced student learning. A phenomenological approach was employed for the analysis of data involving seven online course instructors at two higher education institutions, a four‑year college and a two‑year community college. Findings indicate several factors that influence the transfer of assessment practices from f2f to online environments. Data analysis points to several areas of interest related to the design of online assessment: time management, complexity of content, structure of online medium, student responsibility and initiative, and informal assessment. Authors suggest the incorporation of tradition classroom assessment techniques in the online learning environment should be considered in light of the factors described above. In particular, assessments for continuous and improved learning are important for the development of an engaged community of learners in the online environment. As technologies continue to evolve, a pedagogical framework that considers the learning environment differences between traditional and face to face classes becomes increasing imperative, both in terms of understanding the delivery and mediation of instruction. Such a framework will need to address both aspects of process and product in assessment. Consequently, future research needs to examine what strategies of techniques are effective in the assessment for learning in online instruction. (Abstract by authors)

Assessment is often thought of as being “on the edge of the learning world”. Too often it is the after thought rather than the first thought. Let’s reposition assessment, pulling it back from the edge and making it central to learning. Social media and web technologies make it possible to structure activities where the task and process of learning link assessment and learning goals. Timely feedback provided by students as well as lecturers becomes the teaching process. Choice of technologies and learning strategies relate directly to the integrated assessment task and the learner initiated identification of tasks and sub-tasks to complete the assignment. Immersive assessment is personal in that the learner engages with real-world problems associated with their own context, taking on the role of problem-solver from their own unique perspective. This paper argues for authentic teaching through assessment, where learners are encouraged to wrangle with complex situations engaging fully with their metacognitive processes (Abstract by author)

Assessment of student learning is a fundamental aspect of instruction. Special challenges and affordances exist in assessing student learning in online environments. This two-phase study investigated the types of assessment methods being used in online courses and the ways in which the online environment facilitates or constrains particular methods. In Phase One, syllabi from 24 online courses were reviewed in order to discover the types of method being used to assess student learning and contribute to the overall course grade. Five categories emerged: (1) written assignments; (2) online discussion; (3) fieldwork; (4) quizzes and exams; and (5) presentations. Phase Two consisted of a focus group and interviews with eight online instructors to discuss challenges and effective practices in online assessment. Challenges arose due to the impact of physical distance between the instructor and the students, adaptations resulting from the necessity of using technology for communicating with students, workload and time management issues, and the ongoing need to collect a variety of assessment data and provide feedback. Phase-Two interviewees offered strategies and suggestions to counteract the challenges they identified. The paper concludes with recommendations synthesizing the results of this study with those found in the literature. (Abstract by author)

Tips, tricks & gyan about effective assessment questions. (Summary by authors)

Technology today offers many new opportunities for innovation in educational assess- ment through rich new assessment tasks and potentially powerful scoring, reporting and real-time feedback mechanisms. One potential limitation for realizing the benefits of computer-based assessment in both instructional assessment and large scale testing comes in designing questions and tasks with which computers can effectively interface (i.e., for scoring and score reporting purposes) while still gathering meaningful measurement evidence. This paper introduces a taxonomy or categorization of 28 innovative item types that may be useful in computer-based assessment. Organized along the degree of constraint on the respondent’s options for answering or interacting with the assessment item or task, the proposed taxonomy describes a set of iconic item types termed “intermediate constraint” items. These item types have responses that fall somewhere between fully constrained responses (i.e., the conventional multiple-choice question), which can be far too limiting to tap much of the potential of new information technologies, and fully constructed responses (i.e. the traditional essay), which can be a challenge for computers to meaningfully analyze even with today’s sophisticated tools. The 28 example types discussed in this paper are based on 7 categories of ordering involving successively decreasing response constraints from fully selected to fully constructed. Each category of constraint includes four iconic examples. The intended purpose of the proposed taxonomy is to provide a practical resource for assessment developers as well as a useful framework for the discussion of innovative assessment formats and uses in computer-based settings. (Abstract by author)

In England there is a national survey of all students just before they graduate from bachelor’s programmes called the National Student Survey (NSS). This produces a very influential ranking of all universities and colleges in England in terms of how the education they provide is perceived by their students. Top (or near the top) of this ranking every year is the Open University UK – well ahead of prestigious universities that are ranked many hundreds of places higher on world (research) rankings (although with one exception, to which I will return). This extraordinary fact deserves attention because it is normally assumed that open and distance learning has a series of educational limitations that make it inherently inferior to traditional face to face campusbased education. Somehow, the Open University UK must be embodying fundamental educational principles very effectively despite being a distance learning organisation. If we could spot what these principles were, they might be very useful to us. (Introduction by author)