Theoretical knowledge can be assessed online

Health is an area where, particularly overseas, online training and assessment is progressively taking over from other forms of training. Research is showing that online training, with no patient in sight, can be just as effective once skills have been put into practice. Organisations, such as GP Learning and the Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences, have realised the benefits to be gained by offering online courses.

It is also much more cost-effective than organising a class with access to real patients with the right symptoms. The online course has only to be created once and then on occasions updated, so that it is ready for hundreds or thousands of health practitioners to learn from.

Self-assessment as learning

Assessing the depth of learning of a learner in isolation presents other challenges. How can you be sure that the learner understands the information? This is where frequent self-assessment and the facility to consult via email is of value. Self-assessment can be fed back to a tutor, who can provide more support, or the self-assessment can give automatic feedback to the learner so aiding learning.

Assessment question design

The key to a well-designed assessment is to ensure that the questions require the learner to answer in a way that demonstrates the level of understanding and skill necessary and that the questions do not lead the learner to the correct answer. The latter has been problematic in all assessment, especially practical assessment where slight alterations in the tone of voice can give a candidate a clue as to the expected answer.

You also have to design the test so that it tests the learner's skill and understanding, NOT the learner's level of reading or English. This is where usability testing is vital.

Edutech KM technical writers are skilled at writing assessment questions that meet the requirements of NZQA and AQTF standards, and that are appropriate to the level of the targt learner.

Assessing skills

Of course, ensuring assessment measures the development of skills is of great concern. The easiest form of assessment is one that is auto-marked. This limits assessment to recalling, understanding and applying knowledge.

Auto-marked systems limit questions and answers to forms of multi-choice, including ones where answers are matched to spellings or phrases. Where the learner is expected to spell accurately for safety (such as in writing down symptoms or medications) such questions are appropriate, however, matching spellings and phrases disadvantages people who are not good at spelling but may have the necessary skills.

Better options

By using more sophisticated marking systems (allocating scores against answers) we can automatically mark questions that ask learners to rank answers or solve problems. These can be set against a scenario where learners are asked to select from a range of possible options.

Online assessment can be built to test skills of critical thinking, design and creativity, team-work and collaboration, but these assessments will require either more tutor input or greater cost to develop into an automated system.

A well-designed assessment can give your business good information to present to funders. Click here to learn how a reporting system can reduce time spent on gathering your organisation's data for reporting.

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