eAssessment

The term eAssessment covers a broad range of activities that use digital technologies in assessment. The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)/Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) definition states that:

"eAssessment is the end-to-end electronic assessment processes where ICT is used for the presentation of assessment activity, and the recording of responses. This includes the end-to-end assessment process from the perspective of learners, tutors, learning establishments, awarding bodies and regulators, and the general public."

(JISC 2008)

There are two types of eAssessment:

Formative
Summative.

Formative
A learner’s knowledge and skills are assessed as learning takes place. The assessment is ongoing and the feedback provided can prompt learners to adjust their own performance. This includes diagnostic type assessments.

Summative
Summative Assessment is the formal testing of what has been learned in order to produce marks or grades which may be used for reports of various types. This is different from Formative Assessment, in which the emphasis is on ongoing assessments of different types used to judge how best to help people to learn further.

ePortfolio

Recently, ePortfolios have been used in a number of ways to support assessment. They act as digital evidence that learners have met the outcomes and competences of a programme. ePortfolios therefore document the student journey and give evidence of prior learning.

NTU tools

There are two supported methods for the creation of eAssessments at NTU:

through the use of NTU Online Workspace (NOW)
via QuestionMark Perception (QMP).

NTU Online Workspace (NOW) encompasses a number of eAssessment features, which include:

a dedicated assessment tool for setting up informal quizzes to groups within the NOW learning environment
a self-assessment and survey tool that are available for specifying particular assessment types
other features that are being developed such as the grades feature (for collating results from assessments and activities)
the ePortfolio system which may be used for eAssessment as stated above.

QuestionMark Perception (QMP) is a sophisticated eAssessment tool, which is recommended for use with summative assessment. It is separate to the NOW system and requires familiarisation.

Useful resources: