Use of the internet in today's culture, by young and old alike, is prevalent and continues to increase. Tasks commonly performed via the internet include sharing information, purchasing goods and services, delivering educational courses, and conducting survey research. The purpose of this article is to illustrate how the use of an online survey…

Business schools are often criticized for the inadequate writing skills of their graduates. Improving writing skills involves first understanding the current skill level of students. This research attempts to provide insights into the effectiveness of the current method of assessing writing skills in a school of business at a large regional…

The present work describes an experience of educational innovation in a university context. Its aim was to determine the relationship between students' frequency of use of online self-assessment with feedback and their final performance on the course, taking into account both learners' motivation and perceived usefulness of these resources for…

This paper discusses the relative advantage offered by online Students' Evaluations of Teaching (SET) and describes a study conducted at a Canadian university to identify critical success factors of online evaluations from students' point of view. Factors identified as important by the students include anonymity, ease of use (of both SET survey…

This article reports on a comprehensive study, investigating the use of e-tools for formative assignment assessment. The study conducted a large-scale literature review and interviews with 90 academics at five New Zealand tertiary institutions. The focus of the study was on formative assessment provided in assignments, an area in which educational…

Feedback on assessment tasks has an important part to play in underpinning student learning. Online assessment enables instantaneous feedback to be given so that the student can act on it immediately. However, concern has been expressed that e-assessment tasks (especially multiple-choice questions) can encourage surface-learning. Several projects…

Purpose: Group-based tasks or assignments, if well designed, can yield benefits for student employability and other important attribute developments. However there is a fundamental problem when all members of the group receive the same mark and feedback. Disregarding the quality and level of individual contributions can seriously undermine many of…

This study tests the use of computer-assisted grading rubrics compared to other grading methods with respect to the efficiency and effectiveness of different grading processes for subjective assignments. The test was performed on a large Introduction to Business course. The students in this course were randomly assigned to four treatment groups…

This paper introduces a set of services for the creation of on-line surveys, questionnaires, exams and self-assessment tests within a virtual community system used in e-learning settings. The system, called "Online Communities", is a dynamic web application used as platform for blended learning activities by the Faculty of Economics of…

Purpose: Self- and peer assessment has proved effective in promoting the development of teamwork and other professional skills in undergraduate students. However, in previous research approximately 30 percent of students reported that its use produced no perceived improvement in their teamwork experience. It was hypothesised that a significant…

This study uses three experiments with different kinds of training conditions to investigate the "easy-to-hard" principle, context interference conditions, and feedback effects for learning anticipatory skills in badminton. Experiment 1 (N = 60) showed that a training program that gradually increases the difficulty level has no advantage over the…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on the rationale behind the use of a unique paper-based individualised accounting assignment, which automated the provision to students of immediate formative and timely summative feedback. Design/methodology/approach: As students worked towards completing their assignment, the package provided…

In cognitive diagnosis a Q-matrix (Tatsuoka, 1983, 1990), which is an incidence matrix that defines the relationships between test items and constructs of interest, has great impact on the nature of performance feedback that can be provided to score users. The purpose of the present study was to identify meaningful skill coding categories that…

According to the Quality Assurance Agency, "Assessment describes any processes that appraise an individual's knowledge, understanding, abilities or skills", and is inextricably linked to a course or programme's intended learning outcomes. It also has a fundamental effect on students' learning where it serves a variety of purposes including…

The uptake of CAA in UK higher education (HE) on a large scale lags behind the expectations of CAA specialists. A research project was undertaken with the aim of discovering and addressing the underlying reasons for this. The research was conducted according to Strauss and Corbin's (1998) prescription for grounded theory (GT) research. During…