ONLINE ASSESSMENT AT UNIVERSITAS TERBUKA (INDONESIA OPEN UNIVERSITY)

This paper aims to share experiences of Universitas Terbuka (UT), the open university of Indonesia, in conducting student learning online assessment. Student learning achievement in UT is assessed by the results of several learning activities including face-to-face tutorial, online tutorial, teaching practice performance, other practical works performances, and the final course examination. The student final course grade is calculated from the scores of online or sitting in final exam combined with one or more outcomes of learning activities, depending on the student’s program study. Each of the assessment contributes to the final grade of the course. This paper focuses only on the online assesments, the online final examination and the online tutorial.

Currently, UT has served about 350.000 students. The online tutorial is part of the student learning in each course of total about 1000 courses offered by UT. This learning activity, however, is non-compulsory considering that not all students have access to Internet. Aspects assessed in this tutorial is the assignments completion and the eight weekly discussion participation. The participation trend of student in each course is about 30 percent in average. The number of participants has increased significantly along with the growing number of students who have access to the Internet, regardless the quality of network. Managing the vast number of online tutorial courses and its participants require an effective yet difficult coordination among faculties, learning support center, tutors, and students.

The final course examination is conducted to assess the student learning achievement during one semester. The examination is offered in sitting-in and online formats. The online examination is offered to accomodate students who, for some reasons, are unable to take the sitting-in examination wich has a fix schedule and take a certain location. There has been only around 10.000 students who took this online exam since this program is offered in early years. The problems faced by the students in the exam are the unfamiliarity of the program, poor internet network, and unreliable devices.