OnlineHE_Toolkit

17 The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Project Number: 2020-1-RO01-KA226-HE-095434 For instance: “By the time a student finishes this course, s/he should be able to conduct an effective literature review, by accessing the university electronic databases”. Step 5: Develop the assessment methods and criteria To identify whether the objectives set have been met, we have to develop assessment instruments that measure the degree of achievement. Therefore, the assessment should be aligned with the learning objectives, asking the learners to showcase and perform the expected behaviour both during the instruction (ongoing/formative assessment) and at the end of the instruction (summative assessment) to provide space for improvement. The purpose of grades and feedback in online assessment activities is to inform students about their performance level and the degree of achievement of concrete competences. Among the online assessment practices used, the most common ones are traditional exams with proctoring tools to ensure transparency, oral examinations, or take-home exams (Papaneophytou, Stavride, & Nicolaou, 2020). More authentic practices are also explored such as online collaborative assignments (Demosthenous, Panaoura, & Eteokleous, 2020), digital portfolios, role plays and simulations. In collaborative assessment, there are some obstacles observed such as students’ potential lack of familiarity with the online platform and the relevant tools, their hesitance working collaboratively remotely, and their fear of injustice regarding the way they would be assessed. For this reason, instructors’ role is to eliminate such obstacles by establishing an online community of learners based on effective communication skills to resolve conflicts. Additionally, instructors should provide ongoing support while they are also assessing each student individually. For the latter, digital tools such as the wiki can provide information about each student’s individual work. Lastly, to address negative feelings, it is important to provide constant feedback, model the expected results (e.g., let them know the requirements, the assessment criteria) and allow students to raise any concerns they have. The provision of online feedback is constantly promoted as a best practice in the literature. On the one hand, the instructor should be present and ensure that the feedback is useful, accessible to all, prompts self-reflection, and motivates learners to increase their self-reliance (Savvidou, 2018). It would also be useful to offer opportunities for peer-to-peer feedback. On the other hand, the comments should not be critical, ambiguous, and inconsistent (Savvidou, 2018). However, instructors’ workload and the size of online classes may negatively affect the quality and quantity of feedback.