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Assessment is an important area in both teaching and learning. E-assessment is the foremost methodology for assessment in distance learning. This paper presents a method based on client-server architecture that can be used in capturing/preventing plagiarism in online assessments for distance learning centres. Among many possible plagiarism in online assessments for distance learning centres. Among many possible unauthorised help obtained from online chat forms, websites or other types of communication mediums as well as use of stored text/restricted software. Bench tests show high degree of accuracy in capturing plagiarism scenarios by monitoring the change of grey values observed in edge detected screen shots. During pilot tests, participants attempted activities of plagiarism although the software was designed to prevent the act of plagiarism. The results show 97% accuracy in capturing plagiarism scenarios by the developed software in a restricted Ubuntu Linux environment. Key words: e-assessment; plagiarism; distance learning DOI: 10.4038/josuk.v4i0.2700 J Sci.Univ.Kelaniya 4 (2008): 95-104

In this paper, a new approach to automatically assessing students’ short free-text answers is presented. It has been implemented into the multilingual web-based application called Willow. Willow is able to formulate a question (chosen randomly or according to the students’ personal features) and, to score the answer, written in Spanish or in English, by using a combination of shallow NLP techniques such as stemming, removal of closed-class words, word sense disambiguation or multiword term identification. Several experiments have been carried out to identify the best combination of techniques for each language to find the optimal configuration in each case.

“Global Learning” with shared learning contents, resources, activities and goals is one of the contributions of Globalization. With the capability to use new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) it is a bit easier to have a technology based learning systems that enable learners to share the learning resources and possibilities. As a result many Learning Management Systems (LMS) were developed with divers of platforms and approaches. Consequently, sharing learning resources and components has become a major challenge. E-assessment as a primary activity of any LMS is facing the same challenges and problems. In order to stand on this challenge people in the field of technology enhanced learning have recommended that LMS should conform to specific standards. This paper discuses this challenge, the consequences and limitations of standards in the modern learning settings. Moreover, it shows a service oriented framework for assessment which aims to make the e-assessment systems flexible and also to initiate the term of “Global Learning Assessment” with the possibility of sharing the e-assessment system components.

Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) is emerging as a useful alternative to conventional paper-and-peneil group-administered testing. In appropriate environments. CAT offers a number of advantages over conventional testing, and should be considered a viable assessment technique. This paper describes the rationale underlying computerized adaptive testing, discusses the psychometric and technical developments which make it practical, and reviews some previous work which has shaped the current state of the art. The potential advantages, constraints and operational requirements, and possible areas of application, are examined.

The setting features of an e-assessment can impact the adoption of the e-assessment in general and impact a learner's learning process in particular. The setting features of an e-assessment which is used as a self-test quiz tool are reviewed and examined in this paper. A survey questionnaire was administered to 324 students to gather their perceptions on the setting features of the e-assessment system. It was found that time duration is an important factor. The instructor should be more careful when setting the duration for a self-test online quiz tool to serve the formative purpose. An online assessment can serve the formative as well as the summative purpose of assessment depending on how the setting features are customised. Proper settings should be used to facilitate learning if online assessment is to be used as a self-test quiz tool to serve the formative purposes.

In this study we perform the results from a survey conducted among teachers of Mathematics, Computer science (Informatics) and Information technology (ICT) in Bulgarian schools concerning methods and technological tools for competencies assessment. The obtained results confirm the necessity of developing suitable ICT-based tools for competency assessment – such as simulation-based objects, game-based objects, popularisation of existing technological decisions as well improving teachers’ competencies and skills in implementing contemporary and various tools for assessment of competencies.

This paper describes a proposed automatized case-based cognitive skills assessment system. Unlike most currently available computer-based assessment systems that offer support only for simple assessment tasks, this system supports domain independent case-based assessment of cognitive skills or performance. Automatic feedback and performance evaluation functions of the system are based on extracting relationships and knowledge from a database of available cases and offer support for two types of assessment tasks: case solving, and case knowledge explicitation through construction of a decision tree classifier. The proposed system is described in terms of supported assessment tasks and underlying functions.

The student experience with different aspects of online instructional settings has been the focus of educational practitioners and researchers in many studies. However, concerning technology-enabled formative assessment, little is known about student satisfaction regarding different possible formative e-assessment strategies the students are involved in. Using a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire, a web-based survey was developed to examine students’ satisfaction with the formative e-assessment strategies within an enriched virtual blended course. The results show that, in general, the students were satisfied with the quality of their engagement and the quality of feedback across all the formative e-assessment activities offered. The results also show that the student satisfaction varied between and within the formative e-assessment strategies. However, the gap between the student satisfaction mean ratings across all formative e-assessment strategies was marginal and could not help researchers decide upon which formative e-assessment strategy that stood out as the most preferred one. Learner satisfaction with different formative e-assessment strategies was positively correlated to each other at various levels but no relationship was found between students’ scores on the final course exam and learner satisfaction with formative e-assessment strategies. In the end, the results indicated that a sustained and integrated use of the all three formative e-assessment strategies (online knowledge survey, online student-generated questions and peer-responses, and electronic reflective journals) should be used in the context of hybrid courses. The study also suggests further studies that would widen, diversify both the scope and research instruments to investigate learner satisfaction with formative e-assessment strategies.

With the growth of Internet and technology in the past decade, online learning has become increasingly popular and evolved. Online examination is an integral and vital component of online learning. Student assessment in online learning is largely submitted remotely without any face-to-face interaction and therefore, student authentication is widely seen as one of the major challenges. This study aims to investigate potential threats to student authentication in the online examinations and analyzing the benefits and limitations of the existing authentication approaches. We propose the use of challenge questions for student authentication in the online examinations. For this purpose, we designed a profile based authentication framework (PBAF) together with a user-id and password for the authentication of students during online examinations, utilizing a cohort of personal and academic questions as challenge questions. We conducted an empirical study on a group of online students from local and overseas Universities. The result shows the impact of questions type on the usability, in particular the amount of time taken by the introduction of the proposed approach. We also conducted a post experiment survey to collect student feedback on the proposed technique.

E-assessment is the process where technologies are used for the management of the end-to-end assessment process. It involves the use of any technology-based method that allows systematic inferences and judgments to be made about the student's skills, knowledge and capabilities acquisition. In online learning, technology is used to facilitate the implementation of the appropriate models that can be used for both teaching and learning. In addition, e-assessment technologies allow creating tools able to improve student engagement and performance, offer possibilities to practice competences and skills, provide personalized feedback and improve student motivation. This paper presents a general e-assessment tool with a formative e-assessment model. The e-assessment tool under a formative assessment model is integrated into the learning process and provides aligned and authentic learning experience, focused on skill and knowledge acquisition. Results show that the e-assessment tool and its model had a positive effect on students' performance and learning. The tool itself is capable of providing students with personalized feedback, guidance and marks as well as automatically storing and tracking students' progress, competences and outcomes, going beyond the e-assessment approach based mainly on quizzes. The e-assessment tool and model offer innovative assessment approaches, mainly focusing on skill assessment where dynamic and interactive questions were provided with the guidance of personalized feedback and hints.

Trustworthiness and technological security solutions are closely related to online collaborative learning and they can be combined with the aim of reaching information security requirements for e-Learning participants and designers. Moreover, mobile collaborative learning is an emerging educational model devoted to providing the learner with the ability to assimilate learning any time and anywhere. In this paper, we justify the need of trustworthiness models as a functional requirement devoted to improving information security. To this end, we propose a methodological approach to modelling trustworthiness in online collaborative learning. Our proposal sets out to build a theoretical approach with the aim to provide e-Learning designers and managers with guidelines for incorporating security into mobile online collaborative activities through trustworthiness assessment and prediction. Methodology to modelling trustworthiness in mobile online collaborative learningGuidelines for incorporating security into mobile online collaborative activitiesProvide trustworthiness assessment methodsTrustworthiness prediction based on a neuronal network approachEvaluation of trustworthiness prediction and methodology on real online courses

Im Zuge der Digitalisierung besteht der Wunsch, vermehrt Prüfungen elektronisch durchzuführen. Dies erfordert seitens der Hochschulen, dass neben der Erstellung digitaler Prüfungsinhalte, der Bereitstellung von Softwaresystemen zur Prüfungsdurchführung und ggf. der Anpassung bestehender Prüfungsregularien insbesondere entsprechende Hardwarelösungen und Räumlichkeiten vorgehalten werden müssen. Gängige Varianten sind derzeit die Nutzung von PC-Poolräumen, „Bring-your-own-Device“-Ansätzen (BYOD) oder der Aufbau „Stationärer Testcenter“. Ein alternativer Ansatz sind sogenannte „Mobile Testcenter“, bei denen portable Geräte (z. B. Notebooks oder Tablet-PCs) zur Prüfungsdurchführung verwendet werden. Im Rahmen des Verbundprojekts „MINTFIT E-Assessment“ der staatlichen Hamburger MINT-Hochschulen wurde in den Jahren 2019 und 2020 ein solches mobiles Testcenter zur gemeinsamen Nutzung aller Partnerinstitutionen aufgebaut, wobei Geräte zweier Produktfamilien erprobt wurden: Apple iPads (200 Stück) und Windows Notebooks (110 Stück). Der vorliegende Beitrag beschreibt Aufbau und Betrieb des mobilen Testcenters. Es werden technische (Geräte-Administration, Prüfungssoftware) und administrative (Prüfungsordnungen, Prüfungsplanung) Fragestellungen geklärt, Erfahrungswerte dokumentiert und insbesondere diskutiert, in welchen Fällen mobile Testcenter stationären vorzuziehen sind., In the course of digitization, there is a desire to conduct more examinations electronically. This requires in particular that the universities must provide appropriate hardware solutions and premises. Currently, the most common options are the use of PC pool rooms, “bring-your-own-device” approaches or “stationary test centers”. An alternative approach is so-called “mobile test centers”, where portable devices (e.g. notebooks or tablet PCs) are used to conduct examinations. Within the framework of the joint project “MINTFIT E-Assessment” of Hamburg’s public STEM universities, such a mobile test center for the joint use of all partner institutions was set up in the years 2019 and 2020, whereby devices of two product families were tested: Windows notebooks and Apple iPads. This article describes the setup and operation of the mobile test center. Technical and administrative questions are clarified, experiences are documented and in particular, it is discussed in which cases mobile test centers are preferable to stationary ones.

PhD (Learning and Teaching)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2015 Considering the point that existing WIL programmes are somewhat amorphous and do not optimally utilise available technologies, the TUT decided to embrace a technology-based WIL framework for improving its WIL programmes. Inspired by the fact that assessment is fundamental to the success of any WIL programme, the researcher wanted to attend to e-assessment within the context of WIL. Hence, this study intended to identify and examine the factors that should be included in the development of e-assessment as component of WIL. In addition, it was also aimed at determining the resultant experiences, emanating from the determined factors, of the implementation of e-assessment as component of WIL. By conducting a literature and an empirical study, the purpose of the study was realised. Based on the literature study, the importance and relevance of WIL as authentic learning experience was described, while e-assessment was explained, discussed and justified within the context of WIL. For the empirical study, a sequential, embedded mixed-methods research design, anchored in an exploratory case study, was executed in two phases. In Phase 1, the factors that should be included in the development of e-assessment as component of WIL were determined by means of individual interviews with institutional WIL coordinators and a document study of relevant TUT documents. From the data obtained in this phase of the study, a prototype of e-assessment as component of WIL was developed and implemented. In Phase 2, online questionnaires and online individual interviews, supplemented by face-to-face focus group interviews, were used to uncover the experiences of workplace mentors and WIL students of the implementation of the prototype of e-assessment as component of WIL. The key findings of the empirical study confirmed that assessment is fundamental to the success of WIL. Although optimism about the implementation of e-assessment was revealed, the empirical data further indicated that a variety of factors needs to be considered for its successful implementation. Amongst others, it was suggested that e-assessment should be institutionally driven; that special care should be taken to ensure access to and availability of appropriate technology; that all stakeholders should be subjected to proper orientation and training regarding e-assessment, and that collaboration between the workplace and the academic institution should be improved. It was furthermore suggested that assessment tasks should meaningfully relate to the realities of the workplace; that the development of assessment tasks should be meticulously done and that such tasks should be regularly revised and that attention should be given to constructive feedback to enable student growth and development. By considering the experiences regarding the implementation of the prototype of e-assessment, a more sophisticated version was proposed. The study concluded by indicating its limitations and suggested areas for further research. In the final analysis it was resolved that this study laid the foundation for exploring e-assessment in the context of WIL more vigorously, since e-assessment shows remarkable potential to benefit students, academic departments and workplace environments. Doctoral

Test-based e-Assessment approaches are mostly focused on the assessment of knowledge and not on that of other skills, which could be supported by multimedia interactive services. This paper presents the QTIMaps model, which combines the IMS QTI standard with web maps services enabling the computational assessment of geographical skills. We introduce a reference implementation of the model, with Google Maps as the web map service, comprising both an editor and a runtime system, which have been used in two learning situations. The tooling developed and the real use results demonstrate that the QTIMaps model is usable and provides educational benefits. We describe three other assessment activities, showing that the model can be applied to a variety of educational scenarios. This work has been partially funded by the Spanish Learn 3 project (TIN2008-05163/TSI).

With the implementation of the Bologna Process several challenges have been posed to higher education institution, particularly in Portugal. One of the main implications is related to the change of the paradigm of a teacher centered education, to a paradigm that is student centered. This change implies the change of the way to assess courses in higher education institutions. Continuous and formative assessments emerged as the focus, catalyzed by electronic assessment, or e-assessment. This paper presents a case of the implementation of an e-assessment strategy, implemented in order to allow continuous, formative assessment in numerous mathematics classes using multiple-choice questions tests implement in Moodle open-source learning management system. The implementation can be considered a success.

One of the most difficult issues of e-Learning is the students’ assessment. Being this an outstanding task regarding theoretical topics, it becomes even more challenging when the topics under evaluation are practical. ISCAP’s Information Systems Department is composed of about twenty teachers who have been for several years using an e-learning environment (at the moment Moodle 2.3) combined with traditional assessment. They are now planning and implementing a new e-learning assessment strategy. This effort was undertaken in order to evaluate a practical topic (the use of spreadsheets to solve management problems) common to shared courses of several undergraduate degree programs. The same team group is already experienced in the assessment of theoretical information systems topics using the b-learning platform. Therefore, this project works as an extension to previous experiences being the team aware of the additional difficulties due to the practical nature of the topics. This paper describes this project and presents two cycles of the action research methodology, used to conduct the research. The first cycle goal was to produce a database of questions. When it was implemented in order to be used with a pilot group of students, several problems were identified. Subsequently, the second cycle consisted in solving the identified problems preparing the database and all the players to a broader scope implementation. For each cycle, all the phases, its drawbacks and achievements are described. This paper suits all those who are or are planning to be in the process of shifting their assessment strategy from a traditional to one supported by an e-learning platform.

Introduction: Day surgery is a well-established practice in many European countries, but only limited information is available regarding postoperative recovery at home though there is a current lac ...

This review of e-assessment takes a broad definition, including any use of a computer in assessment, whilst focusing on computer-marked assessment. Drivers include increased variety of assessed tasks and the provision of instantaneous feedback, as well as increased objectivity and resource saving. From the early use of multiple-choice questions and machine-readable forms, computer-marked assessment has developed to encompass sophisticated online systems, which may incorporate interoperability and be used in students’ own homes. Systems have been developed by universities, companies and as part of virtual learning environments. Some of the disadvantages of selected-response question types can be alleviated by techniques such as confidence-based marking. The use of electronic response systems (‘clickers’) in classrooms can be effective, especially when coupled with peer discussion. Student authoring of questions can also encourage dialogue around learning. More sophisticated computer-marked assessment systems have enabled mathematical questions to be broken down into steps and have provided targeted and increasing feedback. Systems that use computer algebra and provide answer matching for short-answer questions are discussed. Computer-adaptive tests use a student’s response to previous questions to alter the subsequent form of the test. More generally, e-assessment includes the use of peer-assessment and assessed e-portfolios, blogs, wikis and forums. Predictions for the future include the use of e-assessment in MOOCs (massive open online courses); the use of learning analytics; a blurring of the boundaries between teaching, assessment and learning; and the use of e-assessment to free human markers to assess what they can assess more authentically.

This paper describes work carried out at the Department of Chemical Engineering at UCL into the use of e-assessment in a second year module and, in particular, the student perceptions of this mode of assessment. Three quizzes were implemented in Moodle, the first two as formative assessment and the final quiz as summative assessment. The results were very encouraging and practically all students engaged with the process. An online survey was delivered to all students after the module, which showed that the students felt that e-assessment added value to their learning and they would like to see it implemented in other modules. The quizzes were intended to be mainly beneficial to the weaker students as it gave them an opportunity to go over key aspects of the material in their own time. Interestingly, the stronger students were even more in favour of e-learning than the weaker students, for whom the quizzes were originally designed.

The integration of collaborative and networking activities with problem solving environments and web technologies on the grid allows the development of advanced environments for training and education. This paper describes some activities performed within ELCHEM (a Metalaboratory of the D23 (METACHEM: Metalaboratories for complex computational applications in chemistry) COST in Chemistry action) using the outcome of MUTALC (the multimedia working group of ECTN (European chemistry thematic network)) to develop grid technologies for research, projects and services for Chemistry and Molecular Science activities.

Lehrveranstaltungen mit sehr großen Teilnehmerzahlen erzeugen ein entsprechend hohes Prüfungsaufkommen. Die elektronische Durchführung solcher Prüfungen inklusive einer automatisierten Korrektur und Bewertung kann zum einen den Arbeitsaufwand erheblich reduzieren und liefert zum anderen eine neue Dimension möglicher Prüfungsfragen. Außerdem lässt sich damit der Prüfungsprozess für die einzelnen Prüflinge flexibilisieren. In diesem Beitrag gehen wir auf diese drei Zielstellungen „Effizienz der Prüfungsdurchführung“, „didaktischer Mehrwert“ und „Individualisierung des Prüfungsprozesses“ von elektronischen Prüfungen am Beispiel einer Lehrveranstaltung „Lineare Algebra für Ingenieurstudierende“ ein.

Peer-reviewed A partir de una aproximación constructivista de la evaluaicón educativa, en este artículo se aborda la complejidad que representa para el profesor la evaluaicón de las comeptencias que desarrollan los estudiantes. Se intenta desmitificar este tipo de evaluaicón, y de identificar las características que debería presentar para poder ser considerada una buena práctica evaluativa, teniendo en cuenta que el contexto sea la educación virtual o e-learning. Así mismo, se identifican algunas herramientas tecnológicas que pueden ser útiles a la hora de plantear la evaluación en entornos virtuales de aprendizaje. From a constructivist approach to educational assessment, this paper addresses the complexity that represents by the teacher the evaluation of the skills developed by students. This article attempts to demystify this type of assessment and identifies the characteristics that should be considered to present a best practice assessment, given that the context is the e-learning. It also identifies some technology tools that can be useful when planning evaluation in virtual learning environments. A partir d'una aproximació constructivista de l'avaluació educativa en aquest article s'aborda la complexitat que representa per al professor l'avaluació de les competències que desenvolupen els estudiants. S'intenta desmitificar aquest tipus d'avaluació i identificar les característiques que hauria de presentar per poder ser considerada una bona pràctica avaluadora, tenint en compte que el context sigui l'educació virtual o e-learning. Així mateix, s'identifiquen algunes eines tecnològiques que poden ser útils a l'hora de plantejar l'avaluació en entorns virtuals d'aprenentatge.

This work is performed in the scope of the TeSLA (An Adaptive Trust-based e-assessment System for Learning) project with the aim to investigate existing problems and solutions in e-assessment implemented in the engineering education, to present an overview of the best existing practice and to propose a blended assessment model consisting of offline and online assessment forms. The research outcomes are expected to facilitate the implementation of an e-assessment procedure in the Technical University of Sofia.

Students were observed directly, in a usability laboratory, and indirectly, by means of an extensive evaluation of responses, as they attempted interactive computer-marked assessment questions that required free-text responses of up to 20 words and as they amended their responses after receiving feedback. This provided more general insight into the way in which students actually engage with assessment and feedback, which is not necessarily the same as their self-reported behaviour. Response length and type varied with whether the question was in summative, purely formative, or diagnostic use, with the question itself, and most significantly with students' interpretation of what the question author was looking for. Feedback was most effective when it was understood by the student, tailored to the mistakes that they had made and when it prompted students rather than giving the answer. On some occasions, students appeared to respond to the computer as if it was a human marker, supporting the 'computers as social actors' hypothesis, whilst on other occasions students seemed very aware that they were being marked by a machine.

This article presents a project designed to increase motivation and perceived impact of mathematics for engineering students in the first year of engineering studies at Hamburg University of Technology. The aim of this project is to demonstrate to students the importance of mathematics for any engineering subject, specifically for mechanical and electrical engineering as the main subjects of their respective study programs. This is achieved by posing problems linking both mechanical and electrical engineering, respectively, to mathematics via e-assessment. By explicitly showing the relevance of mathematics for their chosen major subject, we increase student motivation during mathematics classes and, therefore, their performance. We comment on why we chose e-assessment as the tool to implement the applied problems, bridging the gap between mathematics and the fundamental subject of the two study programs, provide examples of the kind of problems we have found to be successful in achieving our goals and discuss our experiences.

According to the rapid changes in our life styles and in order to cope with the new requirements for modern learning settings and activities, several applications have been developed to provide our modern society with these learning settings. E-assessment as a main part of e-learning has been affected by these new settings and new aspects such as peer assessment have become more and more important. In this paper, we will present a computer-assisted peer assessment system that can be used to improve the learning process. An overall architecture will be presented and an experiment has been conducted. First findings will be discussed and future work will be mentioned.

Stereo logy is a usefu l method fo r c r i t i c a l l y e v a l u a t i n g s u b c e l l u l a r changes evoked by p h a r m a c o l o g i c a l agen ts , thus p r o v i d i n g a q u a n t i t a t i v e assessment of the cel l unde r con t ro l led c o n d i t i o n s . Numerous fac to rs , such as xenob io t i c s , d ie t and age (1 ,2 ) , a f fec t the size and shape of s u b c e l l u l e r o r g a n e l l e s .