The research context
المؤلف:
Mary Rice & Coral Campbell & Judith Mousley
المصدر:
Enhancing Teaching and Learning through Assessment
الجزء والصفحة:
P421-C35
2025-08-14
465
The research context
At Deakin University in Australia, there is increasing emphasis on innovative, responsive and relevant teaching, and of course this includes assessment practices. The University is a large, multi-campus institution that offers courses in both on and off-campus modes, with extensive use of distance education. There has been a significant move to online teaching and learning mediated through corporate technologies. This has been seen as an appropriate way of progressing the University's objectives, and some strategic initiatives have encouraged staff to consider alternative approaches to teaching. For example, recently formulated policy requires every undergraduate student enrolled from 2004 to successfully complete at least one subject wholly online. The main rationale for this is that information literacy, information technology literacy and personal management skills are regarded as important skills underpinning the development of lifelong learning, in all professions as well as further education contexts. Teaching and learning wholly online means there is no classroom teaching; all content (except text books), all communication, assignment submission and feedback is online; and regular synchronous or asynchronous online interactions between staff and students, and between students themselves, are expected. Many lecturers provide video and multimedia resources online, although CD-ROMs are currently acceptable for delivering large files. Some subjects have online group work, debates, clinical and research simulations and other computer-mediated activities as part of their teaching and learning processes.
With the same aims of relevance and lifelong learning in mind, even subjects that are not offered wholly online at Deakin must have an online presence, and many lecturers have developed advanced online components that are integrated either with face-to-face teaching or the use of distance education materials such as Readers and CD-ROMs. However, aside from some online tests, examinations are still conducted in traditional format, either on campus or in regional, interstate or international centres close to students' homes.
In response to Deakin's strategic and operational initiatives, most academic staff have moved towards developing at least online-enhanced teaching, with significant online resources and communication. Deakin Studies Online (DSO), the University's electronic learning management system, is the system used by all staff and students in this scheme.
In considering the effects of this movement on assessment practices, Mousley, Rice & Campbell (2005) note that assessment components in wholly online units of study tend to include more elaborate use of multimedia elements, assessment of discussion participation, and use of self-review tests and quizzes. Even in subjects that continue to offer face-to-face and/ or distance options, traditional approaches to assessment incorporating written assignments (predominantly essays) and examinations are being reconsidered in the light of possibilities offered by online technologies. In particular, the potential for more formative approaches to assessment seem to have been recognized and some staff are seeking ways of making the most of such potential to enhance students' learning.
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