Computer-aided assessment is a term that covers all forms of assessment, whether summative (i.e. tests that will contribute to formal qualifications) or formative (i.e. tests that promote learning but are not part of a course's marking), delivered with the help of computers. This covers both assessments delivered on computer, either online or on a local network, and those that are marked with the aid of computers, such as those using Optical Mark Reading (OMR). There are number of open source online tools to handle exams conducted on OMR sheets.
Computer-aided assessment can be viewed in a few different ways. Technically, assignments that are written on a computer and researched online are computer-aided assessments. One of the most common forms of computer-aided assessment (in terms of eLearning) is online quizzes or exams. These can be implemented online, and also marked by the computer by putting the answers in. Many content management systems will have easy to setup and use systems for online exams.
It is also envisaged that computer-based formative assessment, in particular, will play an increasingly important role in learning, with the increased use of banks of question items for the construction and delivery of dynamic, on-demand assessments. This can be witnessed by current projects such as the SQA's SOLAR Project.
Famous quotes containing the words computer, aided and/or assessment:
“The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower.”
—Robert M. Pirsig (b. 1928)
“It has taken me nearly twenty years of studied self-restraint, aided by the natural decay of my faculties, to make myself dull enough to be accepted as a serious person by the British public; and I am not sure that I am not still regarded as a suspicious character in some quarters.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“The first year was critical to my assessment of myself as a person. It forced me to realize that, like being married, having children is not an end in itself. You don’t at last arrive at being a parent and suddenly feel satisfied and joyful. It is a constantly reopening adventure.”
—Anonymous Mother. From the Boston Women’s Health Book Collection. Quoted in The Joys of Having a Child, by Bill and Gloria Adler (1993)