What is Conventional Assessment

As an important aspect of instruction, assessment is mainly used for grading achievement rather than as a means to support teaching and learning. CyberCoaching System (CCS) is introduced and elucidated as a theoretical framework for an alternative dynamic assessment that can be used for coaching on-line. Such assessment is referred to as a diagnostic cognitive assessment (DCA). Its function is to diagnose cognitive processes for effective learning and instructional intervention. To support DCA, CCS is composed of the ‘Expert Knowledge Model’, the ‘Statistical Models’, and the ‘Student Model’. The Expert Knowledge Model emulates human coaching by modeling coach’s expert knowledge. The statistical models provide probabilistic inferences of the cognitive processes of learning. The student model updates student profiles. A learning episode of sum of squares and cross products in statistics is used as an example to show how CCS can work. Further research on cognitive diagnostic assessment, and prototyping CCS for future development are suggested.