Module 4: Assessment and Online Teaching

As an online teacher, I could easily relate to some of the issues presented in "Australian Flexible Learning Quick Guide Series". The article addressed many of the challenges I have frequently had to confront when dealing with student assessment in an online setting.

These challenges include:
(a) whether and how to measure student participation in online discussion and activities
(b) preventing and detecting plagiarism
(c) issues of security
(d) authentication of student work


Personally, I have never required participation in discussion boards. Discussion boards are very valuable tool in an online classroom. However, iQ Academy only has one deadline per semester. Students are all over the place in the course. Some work weeks ahead, while others haven't even started the class. Even in this class, I have been frustrated by discussion boards. I like to post early within the week, but I have found that many classmates wait till the latter part of the week. It requires me to constantly check on the board's progress. From a management perspective, I have also found that discussion boards are very time consuming. There's no easy way to manage a discussion board in Blackboard.

Preventing and detecting plagiarism is something I deal with frequently. Despite the fact that many of my assessments are authentic, students still plagiarise. However, I have discovered that Google is a great tool to combat plagiarism. I can simply copy and paste a questionable phrase into Google, and often get fast results. There are other times where Google doesn't give me results. In cases where I suspect plagiarism but can't prove it, there's not much I can do. That's a real frustration!

Authentication of student work is almost impossible to prove. I have caught students submitting work that another student completed. The work involved journal writing, and some of the writing was based on personal experience. In these incidents, I have been lucky to catch the students. I do not think I always do, due to the sheer volume of assignments I grade. In an online setting, I have to trust that the student whose name appears at the top of the page is actually the same student who completed the work.