Online Assessment

I believe may people have had many chance to experience the online assessment now a days. My response to online assessment is that the online assessment is a tool to make students and learners more convenience in the testing, learning, and teaching process. I think teachers take more advantages from the online assessment than student. Through using the online assessment tool, teacher not only will save time and effort (CAA, Computer Adaptive Assessment) but also collect more valuable information to assess other aspects of the student to enhance teaching. I have done tons of online test and WebCT test in my post-secondary education. The best advantages to me was I will less likely to have an exam crash with other exam; at least exams won't crash in the same 24 hr period. In addition, I could have the exam result back faster and have information of how well the is class doing in the exam by reviewing the accurate statistical data, such as class average, standard distribution, and class low/high marks. This is the best part I like the WebCT version of the exam. Besides the advantages and benefits of the online assessment, I have a concern about the online assessment that did not appear in the reading of module 6. From my practical view, the content integrity of the online assessment, the exam content might be compromised by those who took the online exam early than the others. This is the growing concern I have found that escalating among some management faculties. This issue might cause the teacher to set random multiple choice questions on the exam. Unfortunately, inequality issue is raised since random multiple choice in the online assessment will lead to deviations of difficulties between different student's exams.

 

Reference

Melissa R Olt. (2002). 'Ethics and Distance Education: Strategies for Minimizing Academic Dishonesty in Online Assessment', Capella University. http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/fall53/olt53.html . Accessed 10/26/2007

Video conferencing and Google Docs

When first time I heard the word video conferencing, I perceived it equal to net meeting. Many people can easily conduct a video conference at his/her home PC or with a laptop. There are many advantages listed in the article: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-video-conferencing.htm . I have seen many video conferencing applications on our campus. For example, Faculty of Management frequently conduct/participate in video conferencing with other scholars in the U.S. http://www.uleth.ca/man/calendar/display.cfm#e60 I believe video conferencing not only save our faculties' time and money but also keep them synchronous with new discoveries from other scholars more "instantly". If I am a HR manager of a chain business, I will be more than happy to use the video conferencing to broadcast the staff orientation and educational materials to intend staff. The method no only can better to distribute the information, but also creates a sense of unity among the organization.

As I can understand, Google Docs is an online "Office suite". It combines the features from web blog and office application (e.g. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint). It is very attractive to online educators and learner. One of the great features I found is that the Google Docs is free of charge. It makes students more accessible to word processing software; even student can not afford to purchase the Microsoft office. In addition, educators can monitor online learners' activities in the Google Docs. It gives educator greater convenience to track and measure students' work timely. Teachers or managers will love to have responses or feedbacks from students or staff. Software such as Google Docs, bridge the communication channel between teachers and students or between managers and staff. It is a great opportunity to make the learning communities much closer.