1. +
The bit at the end
Assessment for Online Courses
Carol Dixon & Michael Wallace

2. + • Benefits of asynchronous discussion
Overview • Assessment of asynchronous discussions
• Benefits of synchronous discussion
• Assessment of synchronous discussions
• Activities to round up and finish online
courses

3. +
Benefits of asynchronous
discussions:
• Assist learners to interact and so build a supportive learning
community
• Provide opportunity for learners to participate at a time and
place that suits
• Allows for more research and more considered learner and
tutor comments
• For the L2 learner, allows time to rehearse and correct answers
– perhaps through a friend or tutor
• By recording scripts provides opportunity to for teacher(and
students) to gain a better appreciation of how much preparation
and understanding students have of the material.

4. +
• Make the rationale explicit and the criteria clear and fair
such as: disagreeing does not impact on a grade.
Assessment of
asynchronous • Include several opportunities for formative assessment to
clarify the procedure.
discussions
• Carefully consider the weighting against other assessment.
Research indicates tutors should: • Ensure topics are interesting and varied as highly
motivated learners may care more about the discussion
than the grade they receive. The tutor should stimulate
discussions with timely and provocative comments.
• Restrict the number of topics, keep groups small and
assign roles. Include self and peer assessments.
• Involve learners in the monitoring of the usefulness of the
discussions and elicit feedback from them on their
attitudes.

5. +
Benefits of synchronous
discussions:
• Immediate feedback from and interaction with peers and tutor
• Save time as communication is in real time (no back and forth of
emails)
• Provides real time contact with fellow participants
• Provides opportunity to collaborate in real time with online white
boards
• Encourages language practice for L2 learners, can be monitored
and guided by e-moderator
• Particularly in chat rooms, provides L2 learners opportunity to
recognize and correct mistakes.

6. +
• Make assessment central to the course objectives.
• Make assessment innovative – don‟t just use traditional forms
of assessment.
Assessment of • Synchronous discussion lends itself to group based
assessment.
synchronous
discussions • Assess collaboration.
• Focus on process rather than product – make assessment
based on the work participants put into completing the task.
Research indicates tutors should:
• As with asynchronous assessment, allocate groups and roles –
possibly set up break out rooms followed by feedback together
as a group.
• Intervene - monitor and intervene when groups need help. E.g.
One student is dominating, participants are off topic or
completing task incorrectly. Check that all participants are
actually there and not AFK (away from keyboard).
• Motivate and support participants. Add comments to stimulate
interest.
• Record sessions – video/transcripts

7. + Activities to round up and finish online courses
 We can’t have that farewell party but we can ……
• Give a parting gift in the form of something written (joke or poem) played (favourite music)
visual (picture or photo or video)
• Group presentations – a way of bringing participants together once more.
• Farewell message
• What I will take away from this course is…
• Recorded feedback that students can all access
• Online „get together‟ – virtual party
 All think about the most important thing learned from the course discussed on a forum or
even better displayed on an online notice board or poster! Use Glogster or Wallwisher
 http://www.glogster.com/ and http://wallwisher.com/

8. + References
 Banbrook, Lyn; Clandfield,, Lindsay; Gates, Dylan; Graf, Doris; Rickman Tom; Michael Wallace; Zainab Bukhari, Syeda
Sara; Zeimanis, Janas E-Moderation: The Consultants-E Online Training and Development Consultancy
 Hockly, Nicky, Activities for Online Courses –the end, http://www.emoderationskills.com/?p=88
 Kahrimanis, Georgios; Mikroyannidi, Eleni; Avouris, Nikolaos; Assessing the Quality of Sychronous Network Learning Activities
using Machine Learning Techniques.
http://www.networkedlearningconference.org.uk/past/nlc2008/abstracts/PDFs/Kahrimanis_187-194.pdf
 Liu, Shijuan, Reference: Assessing Online Asynchronous Discussion in Online Graduate Courses: An Empirical
Studyhttp://www.slideshare.net/tcc07/assessing-online-asynchronous-discussion-in-online-courses-an-empirical-study
 Oskoz, Ana, Students‟ Dynamic Assessment Via Online Chat, University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
https://calico.org/html/article_148.pdf
 “Supporting Students using Synchronous Tools: Chat, Audio conferencing and the Rest” Taken from:
 Danchak, MM. & Huguet, M.P (2004) „Designing for the changing role of the instructor in blended learning.‟ IEEE Transactions
of Professional Communication, 47 (3), PP. 200-
210http://www.gowerpublishing.com/pdf/white_papers/Gower_White_Paper_Blended_Learning_Online_Tutoring.pdf