Testing mastery of course content is essential in the effort to enhance positive learning outcomes. In my view, deploying standardized tests can help an educator gauge the learners' mastery of course content at different levels and enact the appropriate measures necessary for addressing the identified challenges.
Practical use of knowledge and skills.
Testing the learners' ability to apply the obtained skills and knowledge in real life circumstances is an essential part of enhancing positive learning outcomes. In order to test students' skill use, an educator can task them to identify and solve common societal challenges using the gained knowledge and skills.
Experience with assessments in e-learning environments
As an open and distance learning student, I have extensive experience with e-learning assessments. Admittedly, at first, I experienced challenges understanding the assessment reports and as a result, my performance remained dismal for the first two academic years. However, after talking to the majority of my lecturers, I realized that understanding assessment feedback required me to create time and discuss them with the involved educators in order to understand specific details about my strengths and weaknesses. This realization made it possible for me to fully utilize my assessment reports to improve my performance. In essence, assessment reports have been instrumental in improving my academic performance.
Conclusion
Generally, the role of assessment is to measure knowledge and skill acquisition among learners and identify and address challenges that impede learning. by regularly testing learners' understanding of concepts, educators are able to measure and evaluate progress and enact the appropriate interventions necessary for improvement. While the regular contact between teachers and students in physical classes makes it easy for the latter to utilize assessment reports, the physical barriers that characterise online classes make it challenging for learners to understand feedback. In order to enhance their ability to utilize assessment reports, online students need to be proficient communicators and adept users of technology.
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