- Authors:
- Selma Ko,
- Xiongyi Liu,
- Patrick Wachira
Online and blended learning requires the reconstruction of instructor and learner roles, relations, and practices in many aspects. Assessment becomes an important issue in non-traditional learning environments. Assessment literacy, i.e., understanding assessment and assessment strategies, is critical for both instructors and students in creating online and blended environments that are effective for teaching and learning. Instructors need to identify and implement assessment strategies and methods appropriate to online or blended learning. This includes an understanding of the potential of a variety of technology tools for monitoring student learning and improving their teaching effectiveness. From the students' perspective, good assessment practices can show them what is important to learn and how they should approach learning; hence, engaging them in goal-oriented and self-regulatory cognitions and behaviors. The book targets instructors, instructional designers, and educational leaders who are interested in understanding and implementing either summative or formative assessment in online and blended learning environments. This book will assist the relevant audience in the theory and practice of assessment in online and blended learning environments. Providing both a research and practice perspective, this book can help instructors make the connection between pedagogy and technology tools to maximize their teaching and student learning. Among the questions addressed in this book are: * What assessment strategies can be used in online or blended learning? * How can instructors design effective assessment strategies? * What methods or technology tools can be used for assessment in online or blended learning? * How does peer-assessment work in online or blended learning environments?
Index Terms
- Assessment in Online and Blended Learning Environments
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Reviews
Ghita Kouadri
Educators around the world have taken every opportunity offered by advances in technology to improve teaching and learning in higher education. Some examples of such technologies include online learning environments (Blackboard Learn, Moodle, and so on), video lectures, and mobile apps. The aim of adopting such technologies is accessibility of teaching material, flexibility in learning, and increased tutor/student interaction outside traditional lecture hours. Many papers have been published promoting the adoption of these technologies in higher education and detailing their implementation. My main criticism of the few publications I've already reviewed is that, despite the great enthusiasm in using these new technologies, most of the time there is no study of whether they improve student experience or not. In fact, reducing face-to-face time for teaching might have a negative effect on the learning process. Blended learning presents itself as a moderate solution, promoting both learning accessibility anywhere, anytime and face-to-face teaching when needed. Despite this fact, online and blended learning are now implemented in major universities around the world. This begs for new ways to assess students. Assessment is a major part in the learning process and can be classified into two main categories: formative and summative. "The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning. [...] The goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark" [1]. This book compiles a series of chapters aimed at answering the following questions: "What assessment strategies can be used in online or blended learning__ __" "How can instructors design effective assessment strategies__ __" "What methods or technology tools can be used for assessment in online or blended learning__ __" "How does peer assessment work in online or blended learning environments__ __" The book is divided into two parts: "Online Learning and Assessment" and "Blended Learning and Assessment." Each part is a set of chapters aimed at addressing one or more of the questions listed above. Contrary to many publications on the subject, the quality is quite high. It provides both theoretical and practical approaches to assessment. Action research has been carried out in many of the research works in order to assess the effectiveness of the adopted approaches. This is truly a useful book for practitioners in higher education. It provides good insights into the subject, and one won't regret reading it. In my opinion, what makes the book useful is the right choice of research questions set up by the editors beforehand, followed by a good selection of chapters. I highly recommend it to anyone involved in setting up or maintaining an online or blended course. Online Computing Reviews Service
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