Effective learning

Community of learners | Discourse | Assessing participation | Feedback | Further resources

The purpose of student assessment is to provide support and feedback to enhance ongoing learning and identify what students have already achieved. Assessment of knowledge of content is part of this, however in higher education the aim is to also use the subject matter to teach students to think, to develop higher-level cognitive skills including metacognition (think about their thinking). Higher-level cognitive skills include solving problems, analysing arguments, synthesising information from different sources and applying what they are learning to new and unfamiliar contexts. To be effective, assessment needs to be an integral part of the learning environment and embedded into the design of the course which involves aligning learning objectives with assessment.

The same principles for effective assessment in traditional classroom settings can also be applied to online learning environments. This includes learner-centredness, teacher-directed, mutually beneficial, formative, context-specific, ongoing, and firmly rooted in good practice. Good practice includes ensuring that the course is designed with clear guidelines and objectives; tasks and assignments are relevant not only to the subject matter but to the students' lives as well; and students have a clear understanding of what is expected of them. (Palloff and Pratt 2003).

Community of Learners

Garrison and Anderson contend that a community of learners is an essential, core element of an educational experience when higher-order learning is the desired learning outcome. This is based on the premise that the teaching of high-level concepts inevitably involves a considerable amount of discourse. (Garrison and Anderson 2003, p. 23)

They define a community of learners from an education perspective as:

teachers and students transacting with the specific purposes of facilitating, constructing and validating understanding, and of developing capabilities that will lead to further learning

An online learning environment has distinct advantages for the provision of a community of learners - the asynchronous communication medium of groups, discussion boards and email is both reflective and explicit, and learners have access to unlimited data sources. This allows students to take responsibility and control of their learning through negotiating meaning, diagnosing misconceptions, and challenging accepted beliefs, which are essential ingredients for deep and meaningful learning outcomes. (Garrison and Anderson 2003, p. 27)

Discourse

One of the strengths of an online learning environment is the ability for students to undertake discourse. Discourse is more than discussion or social conversations. Discourse not only facilitates the creation of the community of inquiry, but also is the means by which learners develop their own thought processes, through the necessity of articulating them to others. (Anderson 2004 p280)

Discourse can be and should be assessed as part of the course requirements and Palloff and Pratt (1999) argue that participation in the process must be evaluated and appropriately rewarded. Jiang and Ting (2000) found that students' perceived learning was significantly correlated to the percentage of grade weight assigned to participation and their resulting participation in discussion. It is not unusual for online courses to weight participation in online activities at between 10% and 25% of the final marks. Care needs to be taken to assess not just the quantity but also the quality of discourse.

Assessing Participation

Curtin University has identified guidelines for assessing student online participation within discussion board postings:

Does the student posting/s

• Effectively encourage others to learn? To participate?
• Contribute regularly, at each important stage of the unit?
• Create a supportive and friendly environment in which to learn?
• Take the initiative in responding to other students?
• Seek to include other students in their discussions?
• Successfully overcome any private barriers to participation?
• Demonstrate a reflective approach to using computer mediated communications (CMC)?
• Use CMC in novel ways to increase their own and other students' learning?

In order to reduce the load on the lecturer to assess student participation, students can be required to reflect on their own postings, using the above guidelines. In addition students can be given moderating responsibilities during specific time frames during the course.

Assessing Participation outlines strategies for assessment of participation in discourse using online learning features such as discussion boards (asynchronous) and virtual classrooms (synchronous). For details on how to effectively facilitate online discourse/discussions go to Communicating Online.

Further information with regard to assessing participation can be found within Groupwork.

Feedback

Feedback is any information, process or activity which 'affords' or accelerates learning, whether by enabling students to achieve higher-quality outcomes that they might have otherwise attained, or by enabling them to attain these outcomes more rapidly. Dai Housell, University of Edinburgh 'Reinventing Feedback in the Contemporary University', South Australian branch of HERDSA, Seminar 1 July 2005, University of Adelaide.

It is well established that giving students constructive feedback on assessments can help achieve high quality learning outcomes. Large class sizes, more diverse students, less funding and an increase in summative assessments prevent opportunities for feedback. Ten strategies to provide quality feedback which is valued by students and not place unrealistic burdens on teaching staff have been identified by Dai Hounsell as a result of recent research findings and recent developments in teaching and learning in higher education. See [video recording of Hounsell workshop].

A further resource is Providing feedback to online students: A new approach by Cristina Poyatos-Matas (2005)

Further resources

A new era is assessing student learning within 'Assessing Learning in Australian Universities', highlights the importance of capturing the potential of online assessment to ensure higher order learning, including complex scenarios and interactive resources.

The University of Adelaide's Centre for Learning and Professional Development runs regular workshops for academics on the use of online learning strategies to promote effective learning. A rationale and online strategies  for online assessment resource is available within the CLPD website's Current Issues in Higher Education.

An Effective Assessment Model as well as an audio-narrated presentation Research-based Principles of Assessment for Learning guide Assessment for Learning: A multimedia learning resource have also been developed by the CLPD.

Assessing Learning in Australian Universities . Ideas, strategies and resources for quality in student assessment includes 34 strategies for developing effective online assessment

The Value of Online Student Peer Review, Evaluation and Feedback in Higher Education by JA Gilles Doiron, NUS, Singapore