ABSTRACT
In the conventional, face-to-face, teaching/learning situation, student assessment is an area which is full of problems and dilemmas, most of which are felt even more acutely in the distance-education mode. Assessing the performance of distant students, however, has a number of additional problems of its own. Most distance-education institutions are perceived as radical innovations within the total national educational system to which they belong, so that they usually begin with what are called credibility problems. Most distance-education institutions make regular provision for it in their materials. Distance education is a powerful educational instrument, which can reach out even to people like this, but the organisation of assessment presents problems. Distance education, by its very nature, usually relies heavily on written tests which can readily pass to and fro between student, examiner and institution. In the distance-education system, case is very much the same, with the main assessment decisions being taken outside the institution.
