ABSTRACT
Planning and conducting student assessment at a distance has always been a challenging task. Numerous issues such as accountability in certifying students at a distance, test security, identity and proctoring have to be addressed. How should we plan and manage the process of student assessment at a distance? This chapter will attempt to address this question from the context of dual-mode higher education institutions that teach both oncampus and distance learners using interactive technologies such as the Internet or interactive television. While the networked learning model using the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) (see Chapter 14) is becoming increasingly popular, many institutions still deliver a majority of their programmes through the remote classroom model, extending the on-campus classroom through real-time interactive television (ITV) or videoconferencing. Both these models are based on assumptions of interaction and communication, feelings of belonging to and cooperation with a community of learners as well as exchange of questions, answers and opinions. Assessment methods in Webbased and ITV courses are converging. In both the models, instructors integrate the virtues of text, the visual appeal of video and the information-manipulating powers of the PC (McLellan, 1997).
