Assessment for Open-Learning Cultures

Abstract

There is no doubt about the importance of assessment. Assessment defines what students regard as important, how they spend their time, and how they come to see themselves as students and then as graduates. It is a major concern of those who learn, those who teach, and those who are responsible for the development and accreditation of courses. Assessment has been recognized as a driver of students’ approaches to study in distance education no less than in campus-based settings. In those forms of distance education which integrate continuous assessment with course study, assessment is both a vital opportunity for student learning as well as a process of judging the performance of students and assigning grades. Experienced tutors who mark students’ work are also teaching and motivating students, not merely grading them. The student experience is that through doing assignments they discover what they know and can do and also where their knowledge or abilities are weaker. The assignment task may stimulate them to revisit earlier study and motivate them to engage in depth with the subject matter of their course. It is not until students start to work on their assignment that they know whether or what they have learned from their studies.