Themes | E-learning and e-assessment | Benefits of e-assessment

Benefits of e-assessment

You can use e-technology to aid assessment in several different ways.

  • There are standardised assessment activities that learners can do on-line, and where their work will be marked and feedback given. Good examples of this are the different levels of the Skills for Life assessments available on
    New browser window: www.move-on.org.uk/testyourskills.asp.
  • There are software packages that you can use to design your own initial, formative and summative assessment activities for specific groups of learners or individuals.

    These include:
  • E-technology provides the means for you and your learners to collect evidence of their progress and achievement, for example, through making recordings or taking photographs at different stages of their development.
  • You can use it to keep records of learners' progress and achievement along with various types of multi-media evidence.

For learners, e-assessment is often attractive because:

  • on-line assessment activities can look less daunting than ones done with pen and paper
  • they like having on-line feedback, whether it's anonymous or it comes from you; and
  • they can get involved in assessing their own progress.

Example 1

Philip's Skills for Life group used a software programme that encouraged them to develop their spelling skills as they were learning to type. At various points throughout the year, they checked to see how much their scores were improving. This was a quick and attractive way of charting progress. It also gave Philip the opportunity to talk to each learner in more depth about the things he knew caused them difficulties and how to overcome them.

Example 2

On an accredited dog-handling course, Len used a camcorder to capture his learners putting their dogs through their paces. A colleague verified the authenticity of the record. He uploaded the images on to his computer and transferred them on to a DVD. He then sent them to the moderator, who was able to review them as evidence of learners' achievement without ever visiting the site.

There are further examples in the RTF file: Benefits of e-assessment (11KB). Subject Learning Coaches can adapt these to create a handout and exercise to use with colleagues.