Blended Assessment Methods in Online Educational Programs in Turkey: Issues and Strategies

Blended Assessment Methods in Online Educational Programs in Turkey: Issues and Strategies

Erman Yukselturk (Middle East Technical University, Turkey) and Orhan Curaoglu (Middle East Technical University, Turkey)
Copyright: © 2010 |Pages: 17
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61520-749-7.ch018

Abstract

This study analyzed eleven online educational programs of different universities in Turkey regarding their assessment methods with several aspects. The results showed that online quizzes and tests, assignments, individual and group projects, participation to the discussions, proctored face-to-face midterm and final exams are major blended assessment methods used in the online programs. All methods have benefits and challenges while preparing and administering in the courses. Therefore, online and traditional assessments methods are used complementarily to overcome their respective disadvantages. The main parts of student success scores are assessed based on human proctored face-to-face final exams at the end of the courses to get accreditation in the programs.
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Setting The Stage

With the information era, online education has become more important for lifelong learning. Developments in telecommunication and computer technologies made easily design online courses with establishing networked cultures. Today, there are numbers of courses given online for any subject in higher education institutions. With time, most of the problems with online education have been solved and new ways have been developed for better online learning environment. One of the main problems of the online education is assessment part of the education that is still tough problem in front of the online education. Although there are lots of comments and studies related to advantages of online learning, there have been few evaluations and it is an ongoing challenge for educators since with little known on how assessment is implemented in online courses and how to use computer-mediated tools to monitor and inform performance and progress (Bartley, 2006; Benson, 2003; Liang, & Kim, 2004; Shephard, 2009).

Assessment is a key component of any education systems. The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA, 2006) describes assessment as “any processes that appraise an individual's knowledge, understanding, abilities or skills” (p.4). Also, Suskie summarized assessment as:

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