How Can You Improve Your Online Assessment Method?

Remote learning is not something new; however, it has become a necessity because of the situations lately. Many institutions are using the online learning process to educate students remotely. However, this process has created some challenges for educators as they face difficulty gauging their students' learning activities. This is because online assessment has become the new normal. However, there are plenty of shortcomings in online assessment methods as well, which create problems in the process of seamless online learning for both the teachers and the students.

The solution to the issue of shortcomings in online assessment is improving the assessment methods and making them capable of properly assessing students' learning activities. The question is, “How is that possible?” The answer is making modifications in the online teaching process, using advanced tools, and turning towards feasible methods that can reflect students' performance. We have put together some solutions to help educators in this regard. These solutions can help teachers ensure a result-oriented learning process for students. 

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Shortcomings in Online Assessment and Their Remedies

Here we will discuss a few shortcomings that are usually encountered by educators because of inefficient online assessment methods. However, there are solutions to these shortcomings, which can help you easily improve the online assessment method. Hence, we have also discussed fitting solutions to the related issues arising from online assessment methods to assist you. Further details are given below:

Lack of Communication

The most common problem is the lack of communication between teachers and students because of the online teaching process. The traditional learning process involved face-to-face interaction between the teacher and students, which allowed both sides to share their opinion regarding the problems that occurred during the process. Moreover, it was far easier for teachers to reflect on the expectation they had from students in any kind of assessment process. The transformation of the learning process from traditional methods to online practice has changed a lot of things.

Communication between students and teachers is not an exception. Teachers sometimes fail to express their expectations regarding any assessment, which further creates problems for students as well as teachers. The best way to overcome this problem is to have a clear message before starting any assessment in the form of a PDF or using any other messaging system. This message can help students become aware of what their teacher is expecting from them and particular dos and don’ts regarding a specific assessment, be it a test, assignment, or quiz.

The Absence of Proper Check and Balance

The lack of proper monitoring can be a key factor in raising cheating practices among students. It was reflected in the online assessments carried out during peak pandemic days. This cheating factor creates problems for educators as they become unable to gauge their students' performance. The most effective way to limit the cheating factor and overcome the absence of proctoring is by giving students randomized tests. In such a practice, the tests individual students take are randomised or made completely different from those of their peers.

Additionally, another effective way of monitoring students' learning activity and their concepts is peer assessment. Teachers can assign their random students a task of assessing their fellows while making both the assessor and assessee in this process should be kept anonymous. The assessors should be assessed by the teacher based on the review done by them regarding the work of their fellows. Additionally, teachers can opt for methods like face-to-face interviews online, presentations, and assessment projects.

The Rise in the Rate of Plagiarism

Another problem that has evolved because of the online assessment method is the increasing plagiarism in the assessments given by the teachers in the form of assignments. Many students don’t take these assessments seriously and tend to copy the work of their fellows, which results in the submission of the plagiarised assessment. According to recent stats, it was quite visible that plagiarism in assessments was at its peak.

Teachers need to overcome this problem by using a reliable plagiarism checker. Some educators may think of costly plagiarism check tools which are not affordable for everyone. However, there is no need to worry about the heavy price tag of such tools, because there are some other tools available online that allow users to check plagiarism free without spending a single cent in terms of charges. Teachers can also recommend such a tool to their students to ensure their assignments are free of any kind of plagiarism.

Feedback Issues

Another issue that arose because of the online assessment system is the lack of feedback. Teachers had the comfort of giving feedback right away using the traditional teaching process. They could provide their students with feedback regarding their academic performance personally in an easy way. However, due to the online assessment process, giving feedback is not so easy. Teachers can still overcome the issue and make sure that every student gets the right feedback regarding their performance and becomes aware of their shortcomings.

Teachers can either write an email to individual students with a detailed review of their performance or articulate a single email for the whole class that takes account of the performance of an entire section or class in a given assessment. In such an email, they can discuss the trends of scores in the class and questions or concepts that were not understood by the majority of students. Another method of giving feedback to students is conducting a particular online session where teachers discuss the shortcomings of their students without pointing fingers at a particular person. The benefit of such a session is that teachers can become aware of the problems their students are facing while understanding a particular concept.

End Words!

The online learning system has indeed brought some challenges for both students and teachers. One of those challenges is the existence of various shortcomings in the online assessment method. However, it should be noted that all the shortcomings discussed above can be easily resolved by bringing new solutions. We have also discussed these solutions in detail to help educators gauge the performance of their students properly using the online assessment method without facing any problems. We hope this writing will be helpful for educators and institutes as well.

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