Abstract:

The aim of this work is to present the design and development of an e-assessment tool that allows setting and indicating the monitoring and achievement of educational skills. This tool, called e-compass, is designed to be used in a fully virtual learning environment.

Currently the whole educational scenario is changing according to the European Higher Education Area and the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). On the one hand the European higher education institutions are introducing a competence model centered on learners’ performance and activities. Competences represent a combination of attributes (with respect to knowledge and its application, attitudes, skills and responsibilities) that describe the level or degree to which a person is capable of performing them. On the other hand the educational context of this work is a fully online university with a learning environment that includes, among others, virtual classrooms where courses take place, different kinds of learning resources and e-assessment tools. The virtual campus provides learners with full access to knowledge, above and beyond the usual scheduling and location constraints.

In this rich learning environment, different users are interacting with educational purposes based on competences acquisition. Learners are performing activities that have to be assessed by teachers. Teachers have to provide a useful feedback focused on the achievement of learners’ competences and levels of them. In this learning scenario is needed a tool to capture, store and represent data with the main goal of providing learners with the right feedback in a useful and simple way.

The work is focused on two main types of needs or requirements: educational and technological. Educational requirements come from three actors: institutions, teachers and learners. Educational institutions receive regulations for the administration on how to organize the teaching, especially in relation to the acquisition of competences. Teachers receive instructions and indications from their educational institution, making them fit into specific educational plans for each course. Finally, learners should understand the process of skills and competences achievement while they develop the activities proposed in the courses where they are enrolled. Regarding to the technological requirements, it is important to note that they are partially predefined by the university system architecture, although some learning tools and features may be added if the interoperability is ensured.

The design process of the e-compass follows the principles of user centered design approach. Once requirements were collected, a prototype was developed. To test the tool in a real scenario, a pilot study regarding the e-assessment process based on competences and the usability of the online educational tool was conducted.

The main contribution of this paper is to present a guideline to teachers about how to assess competences and how to give feedback to learners based on their performance, as well as to share the e-assessment pilot results and the methodology behind the e-compass tool.

Keywords:

Online Education, Technology-enhanced Assessment, Online Assessment, Competence Assessment, E-Assessment Tool.