Abstract:

There is an ongoing project on the University of Porto (U.PORTO) that aims the association of two didactical tools of information and communication technologies: e-learning and computer based assessment (CBA).
In order to make the convergence of e-learning with CBA there are several issues that have to be addressed: pedagogical problems in the assessment methods, technical problems in the implementation process and organizational problems that are particularly complex in an university campus like U.PORTO: large and spread.
The e-Assessment topic is of general interest for those who work in e-learning, specially now in the era of Web 2.0, where many questions arise due to so many different approaches of methodology, strategies and evaluation. U.PORTO is no exception. The need of being more accurate in the assessment process when using the web, even if the teachers use a blended-learning approach, is real and work is being developed in order to try to respond to this need.
Although the e-learning Unit (GATIUP) works towards different assessment methods, this particular paper focus on the implementation of online tests on campus using the University LMS – Moodle.
The large number of students, time spent on the process (since development to classification), lack of adjusted tests, inadequate methods relating to new paradigms of teaching and learning are current problems that U.PORTO academics face. These lead to the engagement in the use of innovative assessment methods.
Online assessment with automatic feedback presents itself as a possible solution to the problems listed above and also allows to the scalability, process liability, adjusted testing even when a large number of students is being evaluated, creation of new opportunities for students (accessibility) and institutions (new markets) and development of methodologies that allow a secure and liable assessment in online distance courses.
This last item assumes vital importance for the University hence it’s engaging in the development of online distance courses in lifelong learning area.
So far, 11 teachers of different areas are working effectively with GATIUP in this project.The tests are built with automatic feedback. About 2500 students have done online final exams using Moodle.
With this experience, which began in 2007, there are some conclusions that already can be taken:
Human resources to support teachers and students throughout the process are crucial to the success of this project; In relation to the infra-structures needed, one can define not only the technical aspect of the hardware but also the new architectonic approach of spaces such as an online testing room.
Specific software to calibrate questions is an important acquisition to make a posteriori control of the quality of questions;
Training of the academic staff in the development of multiple choice questions is a demand of the teachers that work in this project. GATIUP already ministered a 14 hours training course in the development of MCQ. The second edition of this course will take place in January 2010 with the presence of an invited expert in Psychometrics that will address all the academic community interested in assessment. The event is going under the punch line: “Is intuition enough to build an exam?”
We expect to have a quality increase of the tests and their questions as result of the work of these 11 teachers that are now on the calibration phase of their questions.

Keywords:

assessment, online, multiple choice questions.