© 2006
Last Updated
4/19/06

According to Bransford, Brown, and Cocking (1999), effective learning takes place where the following four learning environments converge: learner centered, knowledge centered, assessment centered, and community centered.

This learning object will discuss the assessment centered environment and online instruction.

Black and Wiliam (2006) define assessment broadly to include all activities that teachers and students undertake to get information that can be used diagnostically to alter teaching and learning. Assessment is not a solitary event, but rather a continual process. Assessment becomes a tool for improvement rather than a test of intelligence or accumulation of facts.

Black and Wiliam suggest that an assessment centered environment should be designed to include: opportunities to express understanding, opportunities to share feedback and opportunities for self-assessment and reflection on learning.

Assessment has traditionally taken more of summative form with measurements such as written exams and oral presentations. As technology has become more integrated into coursework, assessment techniques have evolved to adapt summative assessments as well as implement more formative assessments.

Technology brings some assistance to meeting the goals of an assessment centered environment but also raises some concerns: