• Background
• CLASS Project
• CLASS Staff
• General Insights
• Questions & Considerations
• Content
• Development Teams
• Content Acquisition
• Assessment & Grading
• Design
• Introduction
• Modeling
• Presentation
• Interactivity
• Navigation
• Assessments
• National Standards
• Quality Assurance
• Courses
• Features
• Courses
• Copyrights
• Technology
• Building a Course
• See and Say
• There are Limits!
• Influence and Change
• CLASS Courses
• Content
• Extras Designed
• Extras Linked
• Class Assessments
• A Bit of Dreamweaver
• Proofing
• Graphics
• MOUs
• Detailing Treatment
• Course Credits
• CLASS Style
• Publications

Online Assessment and Grading for Teachers

Online courses present both unique advantages and disadvantages for creating assessments.

The CLASS™ designers spent considerable time consulting with both classroom and Independent Study High School (ISHS) teachers about reasonable expectations for students based both on grade level and distance learning. These educators' concerns included:

• Teacher Time Requirements for Online Courses
  Early in the CLASS™ Project, the ISHS teachers found that the online courses required considerably more of their time than the print-based courses. An ISHS survey indicated that its’ teachers spent an average of 12.13 hours per student per semester for online independent study courses as compared to an average of 6.69 hours per student per semester for the print-based independent study courses that have fewer assignments and the majority are graded by optical scanners. These numbers indicate that the amount of teacher time required for online courses surveyed was approximately equal to that spent for a course in a traditional classroom. Additional analysis of the data would be necessary to determine the impact of technological difficulties. A similar survey was not conducted for the courses developed later in the Project with more advanced technology.
  
• Teachers' Input on Grading Scale
  Teachers voiced a concern about the pre-determined grading system used in the online courses because it curtailed the teachers' ability to implement their individual grading scale. Many content delivery systems have since managed to provide teacher control over many grading aspects.
  
• Feedback on Computer-graded Self-checks and Evaluations
  Teachers wanted the computer-graded self-checks and evaluations to provide the students with the same type of information students would receive in a traditional classroom. They felt that students' learning was compromised if the students did not receive clear feedback about not only what they missed, but also the reason that their answers were incorrect. Designers need to generate meaningful feedback for students in the online courses for correct and incorrect answers in self checks and evaluations rather than just a “Good Job” comment.
  

Security on Online Evaluations
Several of the educators were concerned about security of the online evaluations. They questioned how distance learning teachers could be sure that:

1. students could not access the content while they were taking a "closed-book" evaluation – make the assignments project based.
2. students could not access the correct answers to evaluation questions while they were taking the evaluation – answers should require learning not just repeating what was in the lesson
3. students could not share evaluations or answers with other students who were taking the course at a distance – most independent learners are in their own setting, but some will be in school settings where inappropriate sharing of information is no more or less common with online courses than traditional classroom courses.
4. people other than the enrolled student could take the evaluations – again making the major evaluations as projects where the learning must happen throughout the course rather than just answering questions is a good way to have students do their own tests.
   

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