ASSESSMENT
Assessment activities presented throughout a course or training module are useful for identifying learner misconceptions that
could present obstacles to further progress (Simonson et al, 2009). In order to avoid these misconceptions, the instructor needs to allow students to use their own method of presentations and invite student knowledge brought into the course. Evaluations should be descriptive and narrative and not all about numbers like grades. Expectations need to be explained in the beginning and upfront to
the students within the distance learning course. Students should be evaluated from different angles and observations should include conversation, presentation of projects and students engagement in course through log in time. Along with those best practices, the instructor should give a good amount of time to evaluate and access the student and provide timely feedback when appropriate.
A best practice is to ask, "What do students need to know and how will we know if they know it?” (Simonson et al, 2009). This
question should not be ignored. If ignored, the instructor will end up having a course that is "teacher-centered" and students will not be familiar with the layout of the course resulting in motivation problems and lowering the opportunity of success for students. Enforcing the expectations in the beginning and providing opportunities for success by keeping evaluations and observations an ongoing process will result in a successful outcome because students will know what is expected and that their performance is specific and
tied to the their abilities and efforts. Feedback should be full-on and communicated throughout the course through various forms of communication so the learning can be reinforced and failure obstacles can be removed so the mastery of course content can begin.