There are lots of challenges around assessment in the e-learning environment.
For NTL's the following issues are particularly relevant:
students of any kind increasingly want courses which have some kind of credit so courses need to be assessed
that offering some kind of e-based assessment gives flexibility that might not otherwise be there
that an assessment should serve to demonstrate the student's learning,
but if it can also be a useful record of learning for that student to use
in their work then that is a bonus.
There are however a number of challenges of traditional v's on-line assessment:
Both students and teachers need to be supported in the use of technology to make on-line assessment a reality
There may be a reluctance to embrace the possibilitites of on-line assessment, with issues of plagarism and ownership worrying some traditionalists
The criteria for assessment may need to be different in on-line assessment, and both teachers and students may feel that they are less sure of what is expected of them. New ways of judging quality will have to be developed
Issues of assesment in the University contect are discussed at length in the Culture Machine web essay This is a test