Abstract
Formative assessment is a strategy that optimizes the learning process at any educational level, however its use is not very frequent as literature revision shows. In this paper, we analyse the use of formative assessment in online postgraduate studies (masters) in Spanish universities. Our sample was 31 online master’s degrees coordinators and we analyse the results obtained from a questionnaire with open questions using NVIVO software. Through qualitative analysis of the information supported by cross-queries of codes and attributes, we have considered formative assessment according to fields of knowledge, the type of digital tools used and the main difficulties identified. In this type of online masters, our data show that most of the teachers use this type of formative e-assessment to provide feedback to their students and as part of the final marks of the courses, too. So these results are relevant to understand the E-assessment strategies for master’s degrees. Finally, the main limitation of the study is the fact that it uses a sample limited to the geographical context of Spain. Nevertheless, these data are representative of E-assessment in Spanish master’s degrees and may be of interest for future research, for comparative studies in other contexts and even with face-to-face or blended-learning master’s degrees.
Highlights
Assessment and feedback are fundamental aspects of any teaching-learning process regardless of its modality: virtual, blended or face-to-face (Mimirinis, 2019; Wuisan & Wibawa, 2019)
Our research fits into this frame, because we have collected the information from the coordinators of online master’s degrees in Spain so we can use their knowledge to describe the use of these assessment strategies
A vast majority represented by 24 cases (77.4%) do confirm that formative assessment is a reality throughout the master’s degree
Summary
Assessment and feedback are fundamental aspects of any teaching-learning process regardless of its modality: virtual, blended or face-to-face (Mimirinis, 2019; Wuisan & Wibawa, 2019). Any educational context should assess from a multi-perspective, since different teaching methodologies are often used. Any e-assessment process should contemplate different strategies based on the e-formative assessment, e-peer assessment and e-self assessment (Babo et al, 2021; Lu & Law, 2012; Mosqueda, 2018), summative assessment in the end of the courses. We intend to reflect on the importance of other e-assessment strategies – the summative- to facilitate the effective learning of any student in a virtual environment. According to Zhu et al (2021), the feedback can benefit the learning, the engagement, the positive emotions and the disposition toward learning of master’s degrees students
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