ABSTRACT
The range of innovations associated with distance and open learning in recent years is successfully overcoming one of its most significant hurdles: that of the physical separation of teachers and learners. Interaction is now readily mediated through desktop computer and network technology, and we have seen an explo sion in the forms of interactions now available to distance learners who are able to be connected. Yet for all this innovation, summative assessment activities have remained relatively static in open and distance settings, and even perhaps a little conservative in comparison with assessment activities in face-to-face teaching contexts.
