Education for a Digital World Advice, Guidelines and Effective Practice from Around Globe, 2008a

14 – Assessment and Evaluation
Learning outcomes
After completing this chapter, you will be aware of:
• issues relevant to setting up a computer lab for online
testing.
• software configuration issues relevant to online testing.
• security issues relevant to online testing.
• various types of software available to manage quizzes
in a lab setting.
• the various types of quizzes that can be delivered online.
• some advanced features available for use in WebCT
quizzes: JavaScript, Excel WebQuery, RegularExpression,
etc.
• student assessment strategies for the online environment.
Introduction
This chapter reviews some of the basic issues of evaluation
and assessment relevant to online testing. The
chapter primarily uses as example WebCT version 4.1;
nonetheless, the examples are such that they can be applied
to most online platforms used in a lab setting.
The chapter begins by detailing some of the more
important security issues for online testing, ones that
generally are not covered in most reference material. It
looks in detail at some third-party software, namely,
NetSupport and Excel, for managing computer labs.
NetSupport provides a means of monitoring every computer
in a lab from you workstation; Excel, through its
web query function, provides a means of collecting data
from any page in WebCT in order to monitor activity on
that page. Detailed examples are provided for both
packages. The quiz settings relevant to monitoring a
WebCT quiz in a computer lab are discussed in detail.
Here, the discussion focuses on WebCT 4.1 and a computer
lab environment.
The chapter next gives a detail examination of the
WebCT quiz environment and the different types of
WebCT quizzes: multiple choice, matching, short answer,
paragraph and calculated. It assumes that the
reader has basic knowledge to create a quiz, and rather
than providing such information it discusses some advanced
features available both within the WebCT settings
for quizzes and also features available externally to
modify the quiz environment. Such things as using
JavaScript pop-up windows for creating links to external
information within a quiz; using and creating Regular
Expression scripts to edit input at the quiz interface;
using HTML tables to control the display in a WebCT
calculated type of question; etc. Detail examples are provided
for each, with suggestions for using an HTML
editor such as Dreamweaver.
Security issues for online testing
by Dan O’Reilly
SECURITY ISSUES IN A COMPUTER LAB SETTING
In this section, I focus on the WebCT CE 4.x Quiz Tool
and on issues related to administering a closed-book
quiz/exam in a computer lab. I do not cover all issues of
setting-up and running a WebCT quiz in a computer
lab, I only consider certain security issues not covered in
most reference material on WebCT. As well, even
though you may use a different platform than WebCT,
many of the issues discussed here are similar for most of
the learning management systems (LMSs). In the following
discussion it is assumed that the person monitoring
the quiz/exam has access to a computer workstation in
the lab.
214 Education for a Digital World