Major Issues in the

Assessment of
Learning
Major Issues in the Assessment of
Learning
• Commercialization of Assessment
• Poor Test Quality
• Domain Dependency
• Measurement Issues
• System Issues
What is commercialization?
Commercialization is the process of private
ownership and management of educational
institutions whereby investments are made
with the motive of earning purposes.
Commercialization of Assessment
Introduction
• Commercialization of education a recent trend in India.
• It main emphasis is to make education business oriented, earning
maximum profit for the investment put in.
• Privatization of education resulted in the mushroom growth of self
financing private educational institutions.
• They are collecting more fees in the name of quality education,
textbooks, uniform, shoes, transport, food items etc
• They charged additionally for valued added programs like yoga,
spoken English, Karate, computer etc
Cont…..
• Importance for “Process Oriented Assessment”
(evaluate actual task performance)
• More importance for “Product Oriented Assessment”
(evaluate student performance)
• Getting high marks in the school final examination is the goal of
school education today.
• Schools have become more “knowledge shops” (resource service) to
provide training in rote learning by memorizing the subject
content.
• Teachers provide projects and assignments to students on various
topics to promote problem solving skills, the ability to think etc
• Engineering colleges recent trend is “Place order”
Poor Test Quality
What is poor test quality ?
It means low quality measures produce lack of
information.
Poor Test Quality
• Test serve as important tools in Assessment.
• If tests employed are high quality they could help the
teacher to find the real strength and weakness of students.
Important characteristics of good assessing tool are
Validity
Reliability and
Objectivity
Tools for Assessment
• Validity - When a test measure what it is supposed to
measure then it is said to possess validity.
• Reliability - A test is said to be reliable if it measure
consistently in the same way, what ever it measures.
• Objectivity – When the answer scripts of students is
valued by different examiners and the result obtained
is more or less same, then the test is objective.
Reason for Poor Quality
• Test items do not evaluate the instructional objectives.
• Test items allow chances for students to guess the answer.
• Test items having more than one correct answer.
• Multiple choice test items, none of the alternatives given,
suitably fit in for correct answer.
• Questions are being vaguely.(not clear)
Domain Dependency
What is domain dependency?
Ability to pass the knowledge from one domain
to another.
Domain Dependency
• Learning is based on 3 domains
• Cognitive domains
• Affective domains
• Psychomotor domains
• Three domains of learning are different for assessing students.
• In assessing student learning employing oral test, observation of
performance, team work become necessary.
• Formative and Summative test form integral part of Continuous
Comprehensive Evaluation of student learning.
Measurement Issues
• Assessment of learning there are two aspects.
• Formative Evaluation and Summative Evaluation
• To test Cognitive ,Affective and Psychomotor domain
• Not teacher’s observation of student learning.
• The personal likes and dislikes affect the quality of observation.
• Recording may not be done on the spot, so the data recorded may
not be accurate.
• Without preparing the rubrics, start evaluating the answer scripts
etc
System Issues
• Evaluation system that completely relies on written
examination.
• Problems related to use of rubrics.
• Problems related to the evaluation of student
performance.
Reforms in Assessment

Reform means to change a system

in order to make better.
Reforms in Assessment
• Mudaliar Education Commission (1952-54) to National Policy on
Education(1986) have suggested various examination reforms.
• The important ones are
• Annual Examination system to be changed into semester wise
examination.
• At the end of each semester, continuous internal evaluation tests
are held and suitable feedback provided to students and then
improve the learning.
• Through CCE both scholastic and non scholastic learning
achievements of students are assessed.
Cont….
• Conducting quizzes, assignments and projects periodically,
submission of Student learning portfolio could be undertaken.
• Along with written examination, oral tests and practical
examination to be conducted.
• Students achievements are monitored by maintaining proper
cumulative records.
• Written examination could be minimized by reducing the number
of essay type questions and increasing number of objective type
questions.
• Instead of marks and grades should be adopted to represent
students learning achievement.
• Before evaluating students answers, assignments and performance
rubrics should be prepared.
Open Book System of Assessment
Open book assessment allows students to take texts,
reference books, notes prepared by them into the
examination hall, use them to identify the relevant answers
for the questions asked in the written examination.
Two forms of Open book examination
• Traditional Method
• Answering the test from home.
Traditional Method
• Usual examination in school in the presence of
invigilators in the examination hall and
submit the answer scripts within the time
limit.
• Only difference is students are allowed to
refer texts and other resource materials.
Answering the test from home
Students could take the question paper to
home, prepare their answers and return
the answer script, the next day.
Kinds of Materials used in Open book
Examination
• Text book
• Reference book
• Notes prepared by students etc
• Guides available in the market are not
permitted.
Kind of Questions in Open book
Examinations
• Test items do not test students memory.
• No direct questions are asked from the unit or topic.
• Time limit for answering the question paper is fixed.
Misconception (WRONG IDEA)about Open book
Examinations
• Very easy to succeed.
• No previous reading of books is required.
• Using the information from books as such is
possible.
• More number of books taken to the examination
hall more will be the marks obtained.
Advantages of open book Examination
• Do not test students memory, they need nor cramp a lot of
facts and figures.
• Provides a chance for students to acquire knowledge
during preparation process.
• Develops ability in students to find the information they
require from books and other sources. Enhances the
comprehension and synthesizing skills in students they
need to reduce the content of book referred.
Disadvantages of Open book
Examinations
• All the students are not equally equipped.
• More desk space is needed for each student.
• Some students may spend too much of time in searching
relevant information.
• Most of students open book examination is quite
unfamiliar.
• Not expected all the students have taken notes.
• Most of the students do not score high marks.
Online Examination
Online examination refers to the method of
assessment using internet connection and
information technology.
How to participate online examination
• Log in the web site
• Pay the examination fee and register the name
• Candidate know the date and time of the examination
• Candidate click the examination link and key in user name and password in the computer.
• On getting the examination link one can notice the clock on the right hand corner of the
screen.
• Candidate should choose and mark the answer by clicking with cursor.
• Bottom of the screen save or submit option.
• If save is clicked, the answer will be saved and the saved answer could be modified later on a
particular page.
• Answers will be electronically evaluated.
• Examination results could be received in the printed form.
• (e.g) GMAT,(Graduate Management Admission Test)GRE(Graduate Record
Examination),SAT,(Scholastic Assessment Test)TET,SET, NET etc.
Advantages of Online Examination
• No need for the students to take the examination only at a
particular place and time.
• Online examination are conducted all 24 hours on all days.
• Not much time is required to answer the questions.
• Online examination is user friendly.
• No scope for evil practices like copying the answers from
others.
• Examination at less cost.
Disadvantages of Online Examination
• Highly dependent on internet connectivity, problem may be
arise in getting internet connectivity.
• Answer in online assessment can only be right or wrong.
• There is no denying the fact that one can crack the online
examination.
• Not suitable for essay type questions.
• Without having basic functional knowledge in computer
operations, students can not participate in online
examinations.