This article intends to introduce an e-portfolio system to help mentors assess the teacher candidates’ performances and products in a large scale open and distance learning teacher training program. The Pre-School Teacher Training Program (PSTTP) of Anadolu University is a completely distance program that helps around 12.000 students get the required pre-service training to be able to apply for working at schools as teachers. This article focuses on design, implementation, management and evaluation of the e-portfolio system for PSTTP. In e-portfolio system, it is expected that the managerial decisions (i.e. program/course design and selection, technology selection, teaching method selection, so on.) are effective and efficient in many stages. Change in managerial understanding and structuring is required to improve the e-counseling system, one of the corner stones of e-portfolio implementation. In parallel with all these expectations and goals, developing and spreading the e-portfolio implementations which require constant evaluation and analysis of drawbacks and advantages will contribute to the structuring of the assessment process in distance education providing a more functional, active and faster participation. (Abstract by authors)

This paper addresses the use of computer-based testing in distance education, based on the experience of Universitas Terbuka (UT), Indonesia. Computer-based testing has been developed at UT for reasons of meeting the specific needs of distance students as the following:

• students‘ inability to sit for the scheduled test,
• conflicting test schedules, and
• students‘ flexibility to take examination to improve their grades.

In 2004, UT initiated a pilot project in the development of system and program for computer-based testing method. Then in 2005 and 2006 tryouts in the use of computerbased testing methods were conducted in 7 Regional Offices that were considered as having sufficient supporting recourses. The results of the tryouts revealed that students were enthusiastic in taking computer-based tests and they expected that the test method would be provided by UT as alternative to the traditional paper and pencil test method. UT then implemented computer-based testing method in 6 and 12 Regional Offices in 2007 and 2008 respectively. The computer-based testing was administered in the city of the designated Regional Office and was supervised by the Regional Office staff. The development of the computer-based testing was initiated with conducting tests using computers in networked configuration. The system has been continually improved, and it currently uses devices linked to the internet or the World Wide Web. The construction of the test involves the generation and selection of the test items from the item bank collection of the UT Examination Center. Thus the combination of the selected items compromises the test specification. Currently UT has offered 250 courses involving the use of computer-based testing. Students expect that more courses are offered with computer-based testing in Regional Offices within easy access by students.

This paper presents the design and application of a major individual assessment task created in part to develop students’ capacity for lifelong assessment, a key element of lifelong learning. Additionally the task contributes to fostering a sense of community in asynchronous online learning environments. The task is a supra disciplinary report, recently trialled and now adopted for two postgraduate environmental studies courses offered online. The task design’s theoretical underpinnings are reviewed with reference to

(i) lifelong assessment,
(ii) the value of lifelong assessment from the perspective of environmental studies, and
(iii) the importance of fostering community to support learning in online contexts.

The paper describes the task’s disaggregation into three discrete stages, and the opportunities this provides for fostering community and for supporting students to engage in critical assessment of the quality of their own and their peers’ written work, through a transparent, structured process of giving and receiving peer feedback. (Abstract by author)

This article tackles the concerns assessment is facing in online learning and considers the limitations of the classic assessment models should be overcome by a new paradigm for assessment design in online learning. Considerations and recommendations on designing alternatives approaches are given, pointing out the eportolio as one of the most feasible ones. (Abstract by authors)

The focus of this article is on the combination of enquiry-based learning, information literacy and e-learning and how they are embedded in an online peer assessment exercise. What it shall present is a structure and strategy that aids student learning in the short and long-term. Ninety-eight students completed a questionnaire before and after a three-week online peer assessment exercise during a first year undergraduate research and study skills module. Qualitatively, the results demonstrate that a significant number of students valued the design of the exercise and the benefits it can have on their future learning and development. Quantitatively, a comparison between formative and summative assessment results indicates statistically significant differences in the grades obtained prior to and post the peer assessment learning intervention. The article concludes by suggesting that new and innovative ways of assessment are needed to keep engaging students and develop their learning in different ways.

ery few studies (e.g., Arnold, 1998; Joosten-ten Brinke, et al., 2009) have examined the ways in which evaluators assess students’ prior learning. This investigation explored the ways that evaluators described students’ prior learning in final assessment reports at a single, multiple-location institution. Results found four themes; audience, voice, presentation of the learning, and evaluation language. Within each theme, further sub-themes are defined. These results are significant for training evaluators on how to discuss student learning and for institutions to consider in relationship to the purpose behind the evaluations. Further research and implications are discussed. (Abstract by author)

This article reports on a study that was carried out in autumn 2007 with students in a professional nurse education distance course at a Swedish university. The study aimed to develop a greater understanding of the student-teacher relationship based on research questions addressing the teachers’ role, the learning process, and the assessment process in traditional approaches to teaching and learning. A didactical design was adopted, focusing on three learning outcomes in three phases. In each of the three phases, these learning outcomes were assessed by each student documenting his/her knowledge at the beginning, middle, and end of the course. Data was collected via in-depth interviews with students (n = 14) and through a questionnaire (n = 40) and was analysed using an inductive thematic analysis of the material. The results indicate a student-teacher relationship involving ambiguity and complexity in relation to the degree of teacher direction as being teacher-centred or learner-centred and also in relation to the learning process as being reproductive or productive. The interpretation of the results shows diverse aspects of the student-teacher relationship arising from students’ beliefs about teaching, learning, and assessment and, in particular, process-based assessment. The locus of control involves the teachers’ role, the learning process, and the assessment process, which illuminates different perspectives of power relations in the student-teacher relationship. (Abstract by author)

In higher education (HE), effective feedback on student assessments plays a vital role in retention and in the development of self‐regulating learners, particularly in the first year. In distance learning, where large population modules are common, assignment feedback is generally supported by standard marking guides, issued to the numerous tutors responsible for assessing student work. In this paper, we develop a taxonomy of feedback and report on the results of a survey of tutor attitudes to, and strategies for, providing feedback on a very large Level 1 Open University module. We analyse the extent to which the marking guides afford adequate support for truly effective feedback, and make a number of recommendations for reworking assessment regimes and marking guides.

Assessment for learning is increasingly part of accepted orthodoxy, with massive government funding in England, is central to national assessment in Wales, and an export to the USA. Black et al.'s Assessment for learning: Putting it into practice (2003), the 'bible' of assessment for learning, is set reading for trainee teachers across the UK, and this text is increasingly a staple diet for all interested in assessment for learning. As such it has an important impact on all involved in the teaching and learning process. Despite this, there has been little discussion of either the paradigm or the definitions which inform it. This article examines the definitions of formative assessment and the theoretical premises of assessment for learning exemplified here and how they impact on the practices described. It finds a lack of alignment and coherence in the rationale of the theory, and contradictions which ensue in the practice. One solution is a paradigm shift basing definitions of formative and summative assessment on processes of assessment and not on functions. Functions remain as a basic epistemological premise of assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online assessment and, more broadly, the entire online learning environment provides expanded opportunities to actively and creatively engage the learner. The approach the authors have taken in this book is to work from the established fundamentals of assessment, applying these principles to the online environment. The authors emphasize basic issues of assessment such as establishing the evidence of validity for assessments, but the context of the discussion is always that of an online environment. Written by leading technology experts, this clear and practical text serves as a training guide for assessing online or distance learners. Readers learn how to select what should be assessed, how to use written tests and projects to evaluate the skills learners have achieved, how to provide feedback to learners, and how to efficiently use course management software. The authors believe educators involved with online training and education must have the same assessment expectations and standards as those in conventional, face-to-face environments. This book is appropriate for instructional designers and educators involved with online training and education as well as for college courses concerned with the design and delivery of distance or other forms of online instruction. It also has utility as a personal reference for instructors of courses that assess students online.