Online Assessment: Exemplars as the Best Sources for Comparison Processes?

Online and distance teaching and learning have long been the focus of numerous studies and investigations, resulting in more learning activity and student-focused approaches. Conversely, the issue of assessing in digital environments has, until recently, been explored far less [1]. The switch to online assessment has brought the opportunity to also move our assessment practices towards more authentic tasks, which engage students in synchronous or asynchronous opportunity to “do” something with the knowledge and demonstrate the competences acquired, and, not least, to experience both providing and receiving feedback, and thus develop their ability to reflect on their own learning. Focusing on assessment processes, this chapter examines how different sources for comparisons (e.g. self-assessment, peer assessment, and the use of exemplars provided by the teacher) may stimulate feedback processes and impact student learning as represented by the quality of their final products. One hundred and sixty-five first year students enrolled in an education assessment class at an Italian university agreed to participate in this study. Participants created an assessment rubric as a class project and then were divided into groups which engaged in different activities (self-assessment group, peer assessment group, and exemplar group) to improve their project. The data analysis suggested no significant differences between groups on students’ final rubric scores. However, a deeper look at the three sub scores (Language, Structure, and Coherence) of the final rubrics suggested that the exemplar group significantly outperformed on Structure than the self-assessment group. Students’ responses to the post-project survey seemed to suggest that the exemplar group had the most positive experiences among the three groups.