When we talk about the assessment of online learners, we can all agree that we need to measure both the quality and the depth of their acquired knowledge. In this article, we will discuss different methods for offline assessment of online students.
Before starting an online course, it is useful for every teacher to know what the goals of their students are. This can be verified and confirmed through a questionnaire at the beginning of the course that allows the students to express their expectations and requirements. Based on their responses, virtual teachers can adjust their online courses in order to better respond to the objectives of their students.
A combination of online, offline, and peer assessments provides a large amount of information to teachers about the understanding of their course.
Now let’s focus on different techniques for offline assessment of online students:
Group-oriented – developing teamwork and cooperation
- Video – Divide your students into small groups and engage their creativity by assigning them the task of creating a video on a certain subject. They will have the freedom to choose the types of resources they will need to use and whether it will be an animation, an infographic, a short film with real actors, etc. Thus, they will develop their writing skills and they will experiment with shooting and directing a film. But the most important thing is that they will have a lot of fun.
- Presentation – Designing an impressive presentation about a scientific question will provoke your students to search for different sources of information and to develop their presentation and technical skills.
- Project – Ask your students to create an interesting project on sustainable development, the launch of a new product or service, etc. This will help them develop their skills related to marketing. They will have to think about budgets, resources, and investors, as well as improve their leadership abilities.
- Online discussion – Creating an online discussion will allow you to check how well your students understand a certain subject. The sharing of different opinions and points of view will enrich their understanding of diversity, compromise, and respect for others.
All of these activities can be shared and assessed through VEDAMO’s Learning Management System or through VEDAMO’s online whiteboard and functional windows.
Individual-oriented
- Paper – This is a traditional assessment tool that can be performed both offline and online. The benefits of this method are that it develops critical thinking and improves writing skills, as well the ability to analyze information by interpreting multiple resources.
- Open-ended questions – This kind of online test allows teachers to truly verify the quality and depth of the new information that is being learned by online students. You can use VEDAMO’s Quiz tool to assign tests with different types of questions.
- E-portfolio – Encourage your students to prepare an e-portfolio. This online collection may include documents with text, files, images, multimedia, blog entries, and hyperlinks. With this tool, your students will develop forms of self-expression online and will boost their creativity.
To try and use these assessment techniques you can use VEDAMO’s Learning Management System where students can upload and share the results of their individual work.
Summary: the benefits of online assessments
- greater flexibility for teachers and students
- both teachers and administrative staff save time due to improved examination procedures
- teacher workload decreases as a result of receiving immediate feedback
- online instructors have the ability to observe the progress of a larger number of students online than they would in a traditional classroom
- quick feedback on results through quiz tools and an internal messaging system
Online assessment tools give important feedback to:
- Students – They can be aware of their progress toward reaching the learning objectives at all times
- Teachers – They can receive data on the progress of their students, which allows them to make course changes based on their students’ individual needs.
- Course designers – They can use the feedback to improve the online course experience of students, as well as their interactions.
Conclusion
No matter what type of assessment tools teachers use, their job is to support the learning process of their students. These tools provide important information about their courses and informs instructors about how they can help their students to better understand and implement the new information.
Assessment activities allow online learners to test and develop their abilities via new technologies. One of the key benefits of online group assessment is that they develop the soft skills of the participants.
On the other hand, assessment results give important information to teachers about how their teaching material is perceived and what should be changed. One key strength of online learning is that an e-course can be adapted and improved at every step of the teaching process according to the specific needs of the online students.
Teachers should always keep in mind that they are partnering with their students. Assessment is not a negative tool, but a useful technique. It allows all e-learning course participants to become better aware of their strengths and how to develop them.
“Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.” – Peter F. Drucker
