--- Forwarded Message from Lauren Rosen <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:48:49 -0600
>From: Lauren Rosen <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: #9296 online assessment
>In-reply-to: <[log in to unmask]>
>To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum   
<[log in to unmask]>
>References: <[log in to unmask]>

Hi Arnold,

In my opinion, if you are designing good quality assessable  
performance tasks, than you have your assessment in the extent to  
which students demonstrate what they know and can do. The amount of  
time is not related in any way to the quality of what they can do so  
you aren't looking at amount of time logged in at all. Now, there are  
practice activities that they would probably do that would prepare  
them for some sort of larger performance task. Those you might want to  
simply grade with respect to completed or not completed, similar to a  
traditional class where students get check minus, check, or check plus  
for homework. That homework prepares them for a performance task and  
those who spent the time to learn the material do better on that  
performance task than those who didn't spend the time they needed to  
learn to perform well.

I think in the online course, the only thing that you have to worry  
about, as we do in our hybrid courses, is that the student doing the  
final performance task that is assessable is the actual student taking  
the course. Since we are dealing with language which includes oral  
components, we haven't had too much trouble in knowing if it was the  
actual student or someone trying to impersonate a student. Ultimately,  
it is the student's responsibility and choice as to how well they will  
learn the material. They earn the grades they get so we know if they  
are participating or not by how well they can perform.

Lauren Rosen
Collaborative Language Program
University of Wisconsin
618 Van Hise Hall
1220 Linden Drive
Madison, WI  53706

[log in to unmask]
608-262-4066 (voice)
608-265-3892 (fax)
http://www.uwosh.edu/cols/clp/

On Dec 1, 2009, at 10:28 AM, LLTI-Editor wrote:

> Hi, everyone,
>
> I'm doing a research into how to assess online language learners'  
> performance.
> In my university, online language learning is a must for all  
> students. How can
> we know that students are really participating and engaging in  
> learning
> activities? Time spent online maybe a choice. But how can we know  
> that behind
> accounts logged in are students who are really doing learning  
> activities? Is
> there any availabe assessment scheme concerning online language  
> learning or
> online learning in general? Thanks for sharing information!
>
>
> Arnold Chan
> Anhui University of Finance and Economics, China
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
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