The ways of assessing students have changed dramatically since the inception of Covid-19. Implementing effective teaching in an online environment is easier said than done, with its own set of challenges to overcome in order to ensure a successful outcome. We find ourselves in a new era of student assessment, with state of the art technology – luckily we have online solutions, such as Learning Management Systems (LMS), making it easy for teachers and students alike to adapt to the sudden influx of change related to studying.

There are a few things to consider regarding your assessments before you decide which strategy you will be choosing:

• Frequency of assessments
• Frequency of feedback
• Number of different assessment methods
• Authenticity and efficacy of assessment
• Assessment objectives

It is important to keep in mind that well-planned assessment is not only a means to an end when it comes to a grading system. It is also vitally important to assist students with the coursework – providing a means to interact, assess, reflect, ponder and match knowledge to problems, questions and equations.

The type of assessment also needs to be taken into account, based off its purpose:

Formative assessment – these are conducted during the learning process on order to see how well a student responds to the learning material, in order to provide ongoing feedback and improve student performance.

Summative assessment – these are conducted at the end of  a specific course or lesson, acting as a form of “final exam’ in order to measure how well the learning material was understood.

Below, we discuss some of the most popular learning assessments that are both effective and supportive within the online learning environment:

Quizzes:

One of the most traditional but yet effective assessment tools. Quizzes can take various forms, such as fill-in-the-blanks, multiple choice, true/false, matching, numerical answers, and more – making it extremely diverse and useful when it comes to assessing a student. Online quizzes are perfect for measuring learning progress, comparing the efficacy of the coursework across multiple student results. In some cases, this method can even be used before the start of a course, in order to measure the general understanding of the topic before you delve into it. The same quiz can be taken after the course has been discussed, in order to measure growth.

Essays:

Online e-learning portals and LMS systems provide the perfect solution for essays and deep thinking questions to form part of regular assessments. Essays test students’ overall depth of knowledge and comprehension of the topic at hand, pushing learners to think in depth and analyse their information properly in order to accurately compose their essay.

 Video presentations:

The option to submit video presentations have been made extremely simple with the available technology and online programs. LMS portals, such as Adoctus, offer 4K & HDR video support – offering students the convenience of high quality video formats and live streaming features that support learning objectives in a secure and controlled environment. The lack of visible audience reduces anxiety and if recorded, provides the student with multiple chances to perfect their monologue – which, subconsciously also assists with the retention of information. 

Gamification:

Gamification is in simple terms, the process of using games and game-like elements to (in our case) courses or modules in order to encourage student participation and involvement, creatively finding ways to encourage information retention in engaging manner. An example as such can be a trivia game – awarding points based on the number of correct answers. You can even go as far as a small reward for the winning team.