p.1 On-Line Assessment for E-Learning: Options and Opportunities

The desire to produce educational multi-media packages of ever greater sophistication is such that other, more problematic, elements of e- or on- line learning receive less attention by academics and courseware developers alike. One such problematic area is that of assessment, which is surprising given that, as Ramsden has succinctly observed “assessment always defines the actual curriculum.”1 Moreover, e-learning assessment procedures are more critical in defining the learning that takes place because “Coordinators and deliverers of online units of study have a different set of restrictions and advantages compared to the more traditional forms of delivery.”2 Hence, Graham argues, e-learning requires two types of feedback, “information feedback ” and “acknowledgement feedback. ” The former provides information or evaluation, such as an assignment grade and comments, and is also present with face-to-face delivery. The latter “acknowledgement feedback” confirms that an event has occurred – as Graham points out “in a face-to-face course, acknowledgement feedback is usually implicit. Eye contact, for example, indicates that the instructor has heard a student’s comments; seeing a completed assignment in the instructor’s hands confirms receipt.”3 Unlike face-to-face delivery, e-learning courses lack such tacit and latent feedback, which hence has to be supplied by other means – with the tutor ensuring that students ar