Enriched interactions in
assessments
The presence of two kinds of arrow to signify the interactions in Figure 1 in Enrichment of Interaction in Online Assessments indicates the belief that interactions can be roughly classified into simple (unidirectional, with limited feedback) and enriched (bidirectional - negotiation of meanings is possible).
Table 1 illustrates how different online activities that involve students interacting with content, peers, and instructor can bring either simple or enriched interactions.
For example, the provision of clear explanatory notes as feedback after learners have submitted their answers to an online quiz is a way to enrich content-student interaction, in contrast to the typically summative quantitative results when learners complete a quiz which may indicate as little information as percentage of correct answers.
Student-student interaction can become bidirectional when in-depth discussions are encouraged rather than having online activities that merely require students to publish without peer review.
Lastly, online interaction between students and teachers is enriched when a teacher provides prompt feedback on students' performance through the online environment, in contrast to the delayed feedback that is inevitable in the conventional post-examination situation.
The authors argue that assessments that provide enriched interactions have greater potential for learning engagement and will result in improved quality of learning. With the distinction between simple and enriched interactions in mind, the authors carried out an investigation to determine, first, the overall picture concerning the kinds of online interaction that students generally engage in by studying 45 cases (which were in higher education semester-long courses) that were supported by an e-learning support project in Hong Kong (the e3Learning Project); and, second, to identify exemplars to showcase how e-learning interactions can be enriched for the benefit of students. A general picture helps to identify the current situation and indicates areas into which more effort can be put. The exemplars then help to illustrate practical ways in which these improvements can be made.
The e3Learning (enrich, extend, evaluate learning - hence e3L) Project was designed to support e-learning across three universities - the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the City University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong -over the period 2003 05. It helped teachers to use the Web in education by providing a range of services, from introducing teachers to practical ideas for using the Web in education to developing complete course websites for teachers.
The project supported the web development of over 130 sub-projects, and the outcomes of 45 of these are reported here.
