Brett Bixler (bxb11@psu.edu)
Wed, 4 Nov 1998 08:31:06 -0400
Date: Wed, 4 Nov 1998 08:31:06 -0400 From: Brett Bixler <bxb11@psu.edu> Subject: Re: [ifets] assessment in distance learning
At 9:21 PM -0800 11/3/98, Alfred Bork wrote:
>Several recent articles have raised the question of assessment in
>distance learning, worrying about the problem of cheating.
>
>This problem has long been addressed by the UK Open University. Perhaps
>someone from there would like to describe their procedures.
>
>For newly developed computer-based courses, there is a future approach
>which seems very promising, combining learning and assessment in an
>intimate blend, so the student has no impression of ever taking a
>'test' or doing an assignment. So cheating does not occur.
>
>Such a program will be continually probing to determine what
>problems the student is having, and then offering assistance for those
>problems. The role of assessment is therefore not to give grades, but to
>be sure that everyone masters the material. This could never have been
>done in a lecture or video environment, but only in the environment that
>I recently described here as highly interactive. The use of the
>students' native language is critical in determining the problems.
>
>Clearly very little such material exists. But we know how to produce
>it, with no technology beyond that we already have.
>
>
>Alfred Bork
>Information and Computer Science
>University of California Irvine
>bork@uci.edu
I've done just that with simulations of the workplace for low-level
literacy to mid-level literacy adults, where the simulation was the
assessment, tracking students as they encountered problems and offering
remedial instruction as needed. It seemed to work quite well for that
audience.
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