Online Assessment in a Teacher Education Program

Abstract

In this chapter the authors describe how they have incorporated a constructivist view of learning into their approach to online assessment. The context of their discussion is within an accelerated (12-month) teacher education program at the graduate level for preservice secondary teachers. At the heart of the authors’ view of assessment is an attempt to capture through the use of online techniques how their preservice teachers are progressing toward becoming effective teachers through engagement in authentic situations that are experience based and problem oriented. The authors present three examples of how they use online assessment to encourage elaborated discussion, metacognitive thinking, and critical reflection.