The modern classrooms are rapidly shifting to online mode owing to numerous advantages which eLearning provides such as greater flexibility to teach and learn from anywhere at any time, greater accessibility, affordability, effectiveness, engagement and likewise. Digital teaching and management tools such as LMS portals (LMS full form: Learning Management System), eLearning portals, smart classes, ERP systems (ERP full form: Enterprise Resource Planning) and other educational software have made teaching and learning simpler and more effective than ever before.
The methods which work for teaching and assessment in a traditional offline classroom are not the most effective when it comes to eLearning. Whether it be formative assessment, which occurs during a lesson to determine the quality of student learning and comprehension, or summative assessments which generally refers to final exams that are designed to measure what the student has learnt in the duration of the course, the methods of effective student assessment should be understood and followed by the educators in order to refine the online learning experience of their students. First off, assessments should not be thought of as just a way to grade students. When done in the right manner, assessment can be a tool for great change for the students and help them in achieving future success by challenging them to introspect, understand and apply the knowledge they gained to answer various questions. In this article, we shall take a look at various ways in which technology can help educators assess student learning in a more meaningful and effective manner. So, without further ado, let’s dive in…
Online Quiz-
Quizzes are a common method used for student assessment and the students are well acquainted with quizzes from a young age itself. Using online quizzes as a student assessment tool can be a great way of engaging the students in the class. Questions can be either MCQs, Fillers or hotspots. Quizzes are easily accessible and short which makes them a good candidate for online student assessment. Moreover, the order of questions in a quiz can be easily changed such that each student gets a unique quiz. Online quizzes are also helpful in testing students from different classes, schools and states. Since every student takes the same test, comparing and relatively marking their results is quite simple. This is the reason why most competitive exams have objective type questions especially in the preliminary stage.
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Essay Type Questions-
Subjective or essay type questions are yet another popular method of student assessment which helps with the qualitative assessment of students. This assessment method helps in prompting the test takers to explore and reflect upon their thoughts and opinions, and also tests their comprehension of a particular concept by assessing how well they can structure and present their thoughts and ideas about a topic under a time limit. Essay type questions encourage the students to think critically and in depth about a particular topic, and are best used for assessing higher-level understanding related to a topic in the students.
Online Conferences-
Online interviews are yet another way of harnessing the power of technology for the purpose of effective student assessment. This also helps the educators in giving a more personal touch to student learning. Brief online interviews are a great way of assessing student proficiency on a range of subjects such as mathematics, language, music, C.S. and likewise. Online interviews can be conducted for students individually or as a group, which can be a great way of assessing students on group-based activities and projects. Thus, online interviews provide a versatile way of assessing a student effectively.
Game-Based Assessment-
Game-based assessment can be a fun and engaging way of assessing student learning. In this, educators turn a number of assessment questions into a game, in order to make student assessment more engaging. For instance, educators could create a trivia game for any subject, which asks the students to answer a definite number of questions under a time limit and award or deduct points based on the number of correct and incorrect responses by each student or team.
Student assessment is an important part of a teacher’s job and getting this part right will do you a world of good and enhance your students’ online learning experience as well. By following the effective online assessment methods discussed here, educators can assess the learners effectively in an online class and elevate the student learning outcomes in the class.
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