ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief overview of the five types of technology that contribute to an institution’s commitment to real-time assessment, namely learning management systems (LMSs), assessment management systems (AMSs), adaptive learning platforms, web-based education data-mining tools, and ePortfolios. Most AMSs offer an ePortfolio platform and may use the analytics capacity of technology to report assessment results. Though still emerging on the landscape of higher education, some LMSs draw on adaptive learning technology in the instructional design of courses and modules and on learning analytics technology to report students’ performance levels. The first set of web-based surveys developed by the faculty to track students’ course-by-course progress in reaching exit-level outcomes is used to provide immediate feedback to students on their progress toward program completion and also to serve as a data-driven mechanism for continuous program improvement. Point-in-time or cycles of assessment untether scorers from the specific contexts in which students learn, leading to blunter recommendations for improving students’ learning.
