Electronic assessment has become a significant and essential part of most companies, schools, and universities in the modern era. It is widely used by examination boards, especially those with multiple or international study centers, and those offering distance learning courses.
What is Electronic Assessment?
Electronic assessment involves the use of information technology to conduct any evaluation related to a particular activity. This definition includes a wide range of student activities, from using word processors to visual testing.
It is also known as digital assessment, online assessment, or computer-based assessment.
Different types of electronic assessments contain elements of one or more of the following components, depending on the purpose of the assessment: formative, summative, and diagnostic.
Types of Electronic Assessment:
- Formative Electronic Assessment:
Often known as “assessment for learning,” digital tools are increasingly adopted by schools, higher education institutions, and professional associations to measure students’ skills or knowledge levels. This can facilitate personalized feedback, interventions, or action plans to improve learning and achievement. Gamification is one type of electronic assessment tool that can engage students differently while collecting data that teachers can use to gain insights.
- Summative Electronic Assessment:
Described as “assessment of learning,” exam boards and awarding organizations offering high-stakes exams often have a long journey from paper-based assessments to full electronic assessment. Practical tests, such as having the necessary IT equipment to enable large numbers of students to take an electronic exam simultaneously, and the need to ensure a strict level of security, are crucial.
Forms of Electronic Assessment:
There are many great and easy ways to conduct electronic assessments, such as:
– Essay questions
– Online interviews
– Polls
– Interactive activities and games
– Group forum posts
– Quick multiple-choice questions
Key Features of Electronic Assessment:
The features and characteristics of electronic assessment include many aspects and solve important issues in the educational process. The most notable features are:
– Saves time, effort, and material costs for both students and teachers.
– Provides teachers with numerous teaching strategies and tools to conduct electronic assessments effectively.
– Offers automated and accurate reports and surveys about student performance.
– Safely stores records and data electronically, preventing loss.
– Efficiently provides feedback between teacher and student via email quickly and easily.
– Enhances and develops the educational process more efficiently, quickly, and accurately.
– Reduces material costs and human resources needed for test creation, administration, scoring, and result analysis.
– Significantly reduces human error rates.
Electronic Assessment
Electronic Grading:
Electronic grading is one of the methods used by many examination and awarding bodies, such as Cambridge International Exams, which use technological innovations to speed up exam marking. In some cases, electronic grading is combined with electronic exams. In other cases, students still write their answers manually on paper scripts that are scanned and uploaded to an electronic grading system for examiners to mark on screen.
Electronic assessment is primarily used to measure cognitive abilities, showing what has been learned after an educational event such as the end of a unit or semester. For assessing practical skills or demonstrating learning over a longer period, an online portfolio or e-Portfolio is often used. The first element to prepare when teaching an online course is electronic assessment.
What is Electronic Tagging?
Also known as e-tagging or on-screen marking, it refers to the use of specially designed digital educational technology for marking. The term encompasses electronic grading or evaluation or exam scoring. E-tagging allows markers to grade scanned text or online responses on a computer screen instead of paper.
There are no restrictions on the types of tests that can use e-tagging, with applications designed to accommodate multiple-choice, written, and even video submissions for performance exams. E-tagging software is used by individual educational institutions and can also be deployed in participating schools for examination organizations.
E-tagging has been used to mark many well-known high-stakes exams, including A-level and GCSE exams in the UK and the SAT college entrance exam in the US. Reports suggest that e-tagging is the main form of marking used for general qualifications in the UK.