In formative assessment, often defined as 'assessment for learning', digital tools are increasingly being adopted by schools, higher education institutions and professional associations to measure where students are in their skills or knowledge.
This can make it easier to provide tailored feedback, interventions or action plans to improve learning and attainment.
Gamification is one type of digital assessment tool that can engage students in a different way whilst gathering data that teachers can use to gain insight.
Practical considerations such as having the necessary IT hardware to enable large numbers of student to sit an electronic examination at the same time, as well as the need to ensure a stringent level of security (for example, see: Academic dishonesty) are among the concerns that need to resolved to accomplish this transition.
Online assessment is used primarily to measure cognitive abilities, demonstrating what has been learned after a particular educational event has occurred, such as the end of an instructional unit or chapter.
When assessing practical abilities or demonstrating learning that has occurred over a longer period of time an online portfolio (or ePortfolio) is often used.
[1]: 86–89 Pre-testing – Prior to the teaching of a lesson or concept, a student can complete an online pretest to determine their level of knowledge.
New technologies, such as the Web, digital video, sound, animations, and interactivity, are providing tools that can make assessment design and implementation more efficient, timely, and sophisticated.
E-marking allows markers to mark a scanned script or online response on a computer screen rather than on paper.
E-marking software is used by individual educational institutions and can also be rolled out to the participating schools of awarding exam organizations.
Ofqual reports that e-marking is the main type of marking used for general qualifications in the United Kingdom.
The syndicate has published a series of papers, including research specific to e-marking such as: Examining the impact of moving to on-screen marking on concurrent validity.
In 2010, Mindlogicx[4] implemented onscreen marking system for the first time in India at Anna University[5] enabling easy operations and efficient conduction of high stakes examination.
[6] In June 2015, the Odisha state government in India announced that it planned to use e-marking for all Plus II papers from 2016.
It has also been noted that in regards to university level work, providing electronic feedback can be more time-consuming than traditional assessments, and therefore more expensive.
Individuals can be dishonest due to lack of time management skills, the pursuit of better grades, cultural behavior or a misunderstanding of plagiarism.
In a traditional classroom, instructors have the opportunity to get to know the students, learn their writing styles or use proctored exams.
To assist sharing of assessment items across disparate systems, standards such as the IMS Global Question and Test Interoperability specification (QTI) have emerged.