Online process based assessment for learning in higher education : Dialogue or interaction; Engagement or control

• A three phase model to support process documentation has been developed for use in online courses in the Department of Interactive Media and Learning at Umeå University since 2005. The aim of this model is to integrate the formative and summative purposes of assessment. The model focuses on students’ previous knowledge at the start of the course, reflections on their experience during the course and finally on their learning on completing the course. This paper reports on the analysis of data from the first phase of three phases with a purpose to highlight students’ learner autonomy. This is a part of a larger study on the development of process based assessment in nurse education in a university setting. The study was conducted during the autumn of 2007 in a 15 credit distance learning course. The aim of this research is to study how students engage with the pedagogical situation in distance education when process documents are used for capturing students’ reflections on their learning outcomes. Qualitative data for understanding phase one consists of interviews with two teachers and eight students, students’ process documents with teachers’ feedback and a student questionnaire. The data is analyzed with support of a hermeneutical approach and transcript analysis for understanding the teacher-student interaction. The theoretical work is underpinned by the concepts of transactional distance (Moore, 2007) the thinking of dialogue (Freire, 1970) and autonomous learner.  The result shows that dialogue suffers by the course criteria, too few open questions in teachers’ feedback and on the students’ engagement.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogiskt arbete (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogical Work (hsv//eng)

Keyword

assessment

distance education

process

learning

Pedgogical work

Pedagogiskt arbete

pedagogik

Education

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)