There are more choices than ever before to offer online assessment; every Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) will include options for quizzes and assignment submissions. All SQA qualifications include a digital option, and eportfolios are increasingly becoming the norm in many subject areas.
In this context, we focus on assessment that is available online, i.e., which is available via the Internet or local network, though that can include the need for in-person attendance, e.g., at an assessment centre.
Baseline digital skills include being able to:
- author and deliver online assessments
- schedule an assignment submission
- provide digital feedback on submitted assignments
Resources
This Jisc guide applies 7 principles to determine what good assessment and feedback looks like, with examples taken from the higher education sector so that you can benchmark existing practice and plan improvement.
- Writing Good Multiple Choice Test Questions (Vanderbuilt University)
The essence of a good assessment comes down to asking a good question. This post gives a useful overview of the authoring process with useful tips to ensure you avoid some of the common errors when writing a multiple choice question.
Note – the examples in this post are presented as images without text description and don’t meet accessible standards.
- Writing Multiple Choice Questions for Higher Order Thinking (eLearning Coach)
The humble multiple choice question (MCQ) is the most common option for online assessment – it’s often accused of only being able to test surface knowledge, but with tweaking, they can stretch students and become more than a checkbox exercise.
- Audio/Visual Feedback (University of Greenwich)
Seven practical tips to deliver audio/video feedback. It’s not for everyone, but if you can get into the swing of pressing record and passing on your insights (without stopping to re-record), it can save time and improve on student engagement.
It’s becoming increasingly popular to use video as evidence of knowledge and/or skills. In this short video, we provide tips for students to use their phones to record assessment evidence. Part of CDN’s Presenting Online over Video series.
- H5P Examples (H5P)
H5P is an open source platform which offers a range of interactive content types. H5P might not be available to you, but it’s still a good opportunity to explore different question types. Interactive video and branching scenarios are worth trying out.
- SOLAR (SQA)
SOLAR (Scottish OnLine Assessment Resources) is SQA’s digital assessment platform, providing access to formative and summative assessments across many subjects and qualification types. All SOLAR assessments are developed, and quality assured by subject specialists which means they are pre-verified and meet the assessment standard. SOLAR is free for all SQA-approved centres to use.
Note – the exact choice of online assessment question type will be limited to the tools/platforms within your institution, but it’s a likely an equivalent will available.
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