Assessing Language in an E-Learning Environment

Author(s):  
Rebecca LaPlante

The aim of this chapter is to help guide language instructors with assessment strategies for online courses. The chapter is based on the theoretical background of constructivism and principles for distance learning. Assessment strategies for both formative and summative assessments include tools for implementing discussion boards, wikis, e-portfolios, integrated skills assessment, synchronous and asynchronous communication, and scoring tools. This guided chapter is appropriate for instructors with little to no experience in online testing, or for the more experienced with topics including scenario-based assessments and gamification. Furthermore, the chapter covers implementation strategies that can affect test performance and validity in regards to screen design, security, and directions.

2022 ◽  
pp. 404-417
Author(s):  
Ramashego Shila Mphahlele

Assessment is a valuable process that assists teachers to identify teaching practices that are effective for all students since not every student learns or retains information in the same way. In the open, distance, and e-learning (ODeL) environment, specific assessment strategies can be employed to make a judgment and make the best decisions about the student's achievement. Due to the nature of the ODeL learning environment, assessments should be digital for powerful insights without the paperwork. This chapter employed digital assessment literacy to provide a particular perspective of assessment strategies in the ODeL.


2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (02) ◽  
pp. 1750018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hussein Abdel-Jaber

Despite the proliferation of studies outlining the immense benefits obtained from e-learning, the understanding of students’ satisfaction with e-learning in developing countries is still unclear. Therefore, this paper investigates the relationship between Saudi students’ satisfaction with online courses and a number of individual, as well as institutional characteristics cited as robust predictors of students’ satisfaction in the educational literature. These include: students’ levels of internet self-efficacy, self-regulated learning, assessment of course and instructors’ interactivity and their evaluation of the Learning Management System (LMS) used. The results indicated that students’ internet self-efficacy and self-regulated learning constitute critical factors influencing students’ satisfaction with e-learning. Further, students’ assessment of course, as well as instructors’ interactivity are found to marginally affect perceived satisfaction with e-learning among Saudi students. The LMS used (Blackboard) seemed to be the weakest factor influencing students’ experience with online education. Overall, based on the results obtained and in order to maximise the benefits of e-learning; this paper recommends for Saudi universities to extensively use LMS to increase the interactions among primary stakeholders: students–instructors, students–students and students–LMS.


Author(s):  
Pierpaolo Vittorini ◽  
Stefano Menini ◽  
Sara Tonelli

AbstractMassive open online courses (MOOCs) provide hundreds of students with teaching materials, assessment tools, and collaborative instruments. The assessment activity, in particular, is demanding in terms of both time and effort; thus, the use of artificial intelligence can be useful to address and reduce the time and effort required. This paper reports on a system and related experiments finalised to improve both the performance and quality of formative and summative assessments in specific data science courses. The system is developed to automatically grade assignments composed of R commands commented with short sentences written in natural language. In our opinion, the use of the system can (i) shorten the correction times and reduce the possibility of errors and (ii) support the students while solving the exercises assigned during the course through automated feedback. To investigate these aims, an ad-hoc experiment was conducted in three courses containing the specific topic of statistical analysis of health data. Our evaluation demonstrated that automated grading has an acceptable correlation with human grading. Furthermore, the students who used the tool did not report usability issues, and those that used it for more than half of the exercises obtained (on average) higher grades in the exam. Finally, the use of the system reduced the correction time and assisted the professor in identifying correction errors.


Author(s):  
Anne-Mette Nortvig ◽  
René B Christiansen

<p class="3">This literature review seeks to outline the state of the art regarding collaboration between educational institutions on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) launched in Europe and in the US for the past 10 years. The review explores enablers and barriers that influence national institutional MOOC collaboration, and looks into how existing knowledge about institutional collaboration on e-learning can be used in MOOC collaboration. The review is based on a literature search in databases and on snowballing techniques. It concludes that collaboration on MOOCs can be advantageous in terms of ensuring quality and innovation in the common learning designs, and that—in order to succeed—such projects need strategic and institutional support from all partners involved. Moreover, the review points out barriers concerning the reluctance of individual institutions to engage in national collaboration due to fear of potential loss of their own national branding and the teachers’ hesitancy or passive resistance to new educational platforms and formats.</p>


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Stathakarou ◽  
Nabil Zary ◽  
Andrzej A. Kononowicz

Background: Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are an emerging method of online teaching. However in the field of healthcare education their technology is not adopted yet. Reaching beyond the xMOOC type of courses in order to foster interactivity in the healthcare education requires domain specific software. Virtual Patients (VPs) have been integrated in the past with Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) but extending MOOCs with VPs has not yet been discussed. Objective: To investigate the technical possibilities of integrating VPs with MOOCs for the purpose of discovering a pragmatic basis were the potential pedagogical benefits can be later studied. Methods: We selected OpenEdx and Open Labyrinth as examples of a MOOC platform and of a VP system. We conducted a literature review to identify technical requirements and e-learning standards apt for the integration. One fundamental requirement was prototyped and verified by use cases. Results: A Single–Sign on mechanism connecting Open Labyrinth with OpenEdx, employing the IMS LTI standard, has been successfully implemented and verified. Conclusion: We investigated the technical perspective of integrating VPs in MOOCs, aiming to set a base for future investigation on the topic. The results point out new opportunities arising from the infrastructure of MOOCs for integrating specialized software aiming to support the healthcare education.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (Extra-B) ◽  
pp. 173-180
Author(s):  
Elizaveta Afanasyevna Barakhsanova ◽  
Mikhail Petrovich Sivtsev ◽  
Nyurgun Mikhailovich Pavlov ◽  
Afanasy Radnaevich Batorov ◽  
Maria Egorovna Alekseeva

The authors justified the idea of developing online courses based on the use of Moodle tools, allowing the formation of knowledge in the field of technological and methodological skills and abilities to use educational applications, services, and their application in professional activities in the implementation of online learning in the digital environment of the university.  Assessment of the effectiveness of the online course is confirmed by the solution of professional tasks from the knowledge of the digital educational environment with interdisciplinary content and tasks requiring the use of e-learning tools. Analysis of the results using two-way analysis of variance revealed a significant effect of factors on the effective feature using the F-test. The significance of the study lies in the development of online advanced training courses aimed at improving the technological level of teachers and educators of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in the implementation of the remote format of training using online distance learning tools and technologies. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e315
Author(s):  
Isabel S. Fitton ◽  
Daniel J. Finnegan ◽  
Michael J. Proulx

Massive Open Online Courses are a dominant force in remote-learning yet suffer from persisting problems stemming from lack of commitment and low completion rates. In this initial study we investigate how the use of immersive virtual environments for Power-Point based informational learning may benefit learners and mimic traditional lectures successfully. We examine the role of embodied agent tutors which are frequently implemented within virtual learning environments. We find similar performance on a bespoke knowledge test and metrics for motivation, satisfaction, and engagement by learners in both real and virtual environments, regardless of embodied agent tutor presence. Our results raise questions regarding the viability of using virtual environments for remote-learning paradigms, and we emphasise the need for further investigation to inform the design of effective remote-learning applications.


2021 ◽  
Vol 129 ◽  
pp. 01002
Author(s):  
Michal Beno ◽  
Jozef Hvorecky

Research background: E-learning and e-working collaborated on a voluntary basis for long. The global COVID-19 lockdown enforced them to a rapid worldwide transition to work, teach, and learn from home. Purpose of the article: Our main aim is to identify the interrelations between e-learning and e-working during the pandemic period. Considering e-working as the 1st pillar and e-learning as the 2nd pillar, we ask: What structure can we build above them? What are its global features? Methods: Our study uses a comparative analysis. We juxtapose results of a survey among 120 full-time Austrian e-workers on their experience with e-working and e-learning with one of 172 university teachers in Czech and Slovak Republic. Our findings can be applied far beyond their local frontiers. Findings & Value added: Among the employees, 40% are facing some difficulties with face-to-display work. Only 40% of the employees would like to work at cubicles after the pandemic, 30% prefer hybrid (combination of online and on-site) and 30% full e-working. 75% of e-workers participated in online courses. 45% of them wander whether schools and universities are prepared for e-learning. 60% highlight that education system needs to invest in its ICT to be better prepared for online education; 70% recommend hybrid education as the optimal solution. 40% of them believe that online learning is more challenging compared to traditional onsite learning. Some of their suggestions contradict the opinion of university educators. A majority of them considers online education as a temporary replacement.


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