Effective Practice with e-Assessment: An overview of ... - Jisc

‘People often talk about the cost of e-learning, which is the
wrong attitude. It is about value and what it brings to the
institution. The people cost is substantial, but a good
investment,’ points out Dr Richard Parsons, Director of
e-Learning at Dundee.
For lecturers, e-assessment is becoming a vital asset in
managing learning in large-group contexts, but there is also
considerable value in online assessments for students. With
content available on a learning platform, lectures can be
used to refine understanding rather than to introduce a topic.
e-Assessment can then be used to confirm their grasp of the
detail without adding to staff workload.
The use of formative e-assessment at Dundee has been
instrumental in upgrading attendance and performance.
Significant improvements have been recorded in second-year
life science chemistry, for example, where self-paced
e-assessments have turned a course from one on which half
the students were failing to one on which most are obtaining
at least satisfactory results.
What are the challenges illustrated by this
case study?
g
Encouraging staff to acquire new skills
g
Using accredited schemes to enhance the value of
staff development in e-assessment
g
Identifying appropriate uses of formative
e-assessment
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www.dundee.ac.uk/learning/leu/ilt/selfpeer.htm
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‘People often talk about the cost
of e-learning, which is the wrong
attitude. It is about value and what
it brings to the institution. The
people cost is substantial, but a
good investment.’
Dr Richard Parsons, Director of e-Learning,
University of Dundee
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