Assessment for Flexible Delivery

Flexible delivery opens opportunities for the use of a variety of assessment methods to meet the needs of a diverse student body, including a shift from a summative examination system to continuous, diagnostic and formative means of assessment.

Flexible assessment methods include online assessments, group assessments, peer assessments and presentations, off-campus examination and invigilation arrangements, and individualised assessment procedures for students with special needs.

Greater administrative support than is often currently available is needed for a wider range of assessment options. The wider range of assessment options also has implications for programme management and external assessment. Assessment for flexible delivery may involve:

• formative assessment through VLEs including the use of learning journals, discussion fora, dialoguing between staff and students and between students and tutors, shared feedback, and submission of assignments and drafts;

• alignment of assessment with learning and pedagogical approaches;

• increased use of peer and collaborative assessment;

• development of systems to integrate the uploading of assessment results from VLEs to the central registry of module assessment results;

• increased awareness of preventing and detecting plagiarism, particularly in relation to e-learning;

• automated self-assessment tools for summative assessment for example, multiple choice questionnaires, more use of electronic resources in assessments and electronic submission of course work, including e-portfolios, self-assessment quizzes and embedded resource discovery skills;

• robust approaches to quality assurance of the assessment process in terms of monitoring turnaround, assessing standards and feedback quality; and

• significant staff training and support in online assessment techniques.

Materials and resources include an advanced online assessment management system available free of charge to all UK further and higher education institutions, and a reference model for assessment systems and an e-assessment glossary. e-Assessment initiatives are increasingly concerned with the development of tools and processes to help institutions to transform their thinking about, and practices of, assessment in higher education.