Collaborative Assessment as a Learning Process in E-learning

Abstract

This paper examines the various ways in which students talk about their experience and perceptions of collaborative review and assessment as it occurs in e- learning environments. Collaborative review and assessment involves the student, their peers and tutor in thoughtful and critical examination of each student's course work. The process involves two stages: review and discussion of the student's work with a view to bringing different critical yet supportive perspectives to the work. This is followed by the use of two sets of criteria to make judgements on the student's work: one set provided by the student, the other by the tutor. The purpose of collaborative assessment is to foster a learning approach to assessment and to develop a shared power relationship with students. From analysis of face to face interviews, examination of e-learning discussions and student completed questionnaires, a set of analytic categories was developed describing the learners’ experiences of collaborative assessment. The paper focuses on analysing and discussing these categories of experience. The research shows that collaborative e-learning assessment helps students move away from dependence on lecturers as the only or major source of judgement about the quality of learning. Students develop skill and know how about self and peer assessment and see themselves as competent in making judgements about their own and each other's work, which are good lifelong learning skills.