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)

The advance of online technology and instructional delivery such as Web-based learning (WBL) has heralded new changes in education. Students using the WBL environment in various courses at eight universities in Malaysia were surveyed. Results showed that five main factors influence the effectiveness of the online learning process: students' behavior, characteristics of lecturers, interactive application, technology or system, and the institutions. Results indicated that students' grades are highly correlated with student perception, self-efficacy and interactivity. The WBL learners do not outperform traditional learners. There is also a need to improve the quality of WBL due to differences in adaptation styles of learners in the process.