Today technology is helping students learn on their own speed and in their preferred style of learning. Yet for instructors to decide how to use technology to measure learning a few things must be taken into consideration:
Cons:
1. Environment: When technology is being used for assessment the instructor can only observe the digital environment
2. IT Learning curve: Learners need to be familiar with the technology and the platform used otherwise they may score incorrectly even though they know the answer
3. Motivation: It is easy to demotivate the learner specially in a distant learning environment because the learner cannot estimate how his/her peers are doing on the assessment
4. Plagiarism: With the digital world plagiarism became easier yet there are softwares to uncover it
Pros:
1. Formative & summative tools: Instructors are equipped with different tools and content that can create different types of assessment
2. Learner behaviour: Standards like SCORM and xAPI allow instructors to measure the experience of their learner. This can help better design the course. For example the instructor can know how much time is spent on each page and where did the learner clicked or got stuck
3. Machine Learning: Some advanced algorithms are offering data analysis that can be done automatically can generate useful information.
4. Big Data: The amount of data recorded from different institutes can be analyzed and cross referenced in order to validate assumptions or find new methods of assessment
References
Bates. T. (2014). Teaching in a digital age. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/5-8-assessment-of-learning/ (Appendix 1. A8)
Jordan, M. I., & Mitchell, T. M. (2015). Machine learning: Trends, perspectives, and prospects. Science, 349(6245), 255-260.
Metz, S. (2015). Big data. The Science Teacher, 82(5), 6.