Wendy Young
With the rise of digital transformation in recent years across a number of industries, more and more organisations in Australia are implementing e-assessments. Paper based assessments are now a thing of the past, with online accessibility for in-class exams, admission testing for universities and even English language testing. There are a number of benefits of online assessments ranging from efficient marking, grading and feedback, a better experience for users, reduced cost and time and automatic record keeping for audit purposes.
Efficient marking, grading and feedback: When an assessment is based online, particularly multiple choice tests, they can be scored immediately which allows users to instantly see how they performed on the assessment. The fact that the grading is immediate allows instructors to pay more attention to providing feedback which is important for future learning.
Better experience for students: The use of online based assessments encourages users to be more engaged, as certain quizzes that incorporate video programs promote increased involvement. Rather than feeling like a test, to the user it can almost feel like an online game, making it more interesting and allowing them to be more interactive.
Reduced cost and time: Online based assessments drastically reduce cost and time for both users and instructors. If the assessment is not in-class, this allows the user to complete it on a computer anytime, anywhere. The same can be said for instructors. As mentioned previously, marking, grading and feedback is immediate as opposed to marking and providing feedback on paper-based assessments which can be very time consuming.
Automatic record keeping: This also ties in with reduced cost and time. Online based assessments automatically keep track of the user’s identity, their scores, any feedback related to them and there is no need for the details to be recorded manually, which generally takes up more time, resources and storage space.
As you can see from the points above (which are not exhaustive in anyway), there are many benefits of e-assessments, both to user’s and instructors. Implementing e-assessments does require financial investment but there will be a return on this, saving a lot of time and money in the long term. The ability to complete an assessment and to mark, grade and provide feedback anytime and anywhere is reason enough!
I specialise in project services recruitment in the education industry. If you need assistance with resourcing or would like to chat further regarding market insights, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Wendy Young
Consultant
Project Resource Partners
Level 7, 360 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3000 Australia
T +61 3 9949 8100 D +61 3 9949 8169
E wyoung@projectresourcepartners.com.au