Assessment at a distance: Traditional vs. Alternative Assessments

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The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology – TOJET July 2003 ISSN: 1303-6521 volume 2 Issue 3 Article 2 
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Assessment at a distance: Traditional vs. Alternative Assessments 
 
Semire Dikli 
Florida State University 
 
“Assessment performances are day-to-day activities that can also be authentic and engaging demonstrations of 
students’ abilities to grapple with the central challenges of a discipline in real life contexts” (Kulieke, Bakker, 
Collins, Fennimore, Fine, Herman, Jones, Raack, & Tinzmann, 1990, p.2).
 
Assessment is one of the crucial components of the instruction. People within the educational 
community, i.e. policymakers, educators, students, parents, administrators, have different ideas regarding the 
implementation of assessment strategies (Dietel, Herman, and Knuth, 1991). While some believe traditional 
assessment methods are more effective, others think that alternative assessment tools are superior. This article is 
written to inform people particularly in the field of distance education about assessment practices at a distance. 
However, the content of assessment is not a field specific and it can be applied to various instructional settings 
(Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, and Zvacek, 2000). Therefore, anyone who is directly or indirectly related to 
education –distance or face-to-face- might find the information presented in this article useful. 
Assessment and testing
 
Assessment and testing considerably differ from each other. While testing is formal and often 
standardized, assessment is based on a collection of information about what students know and what they are 
able to do. In other words, students are given the exact procedures for administering and scoring in testing. In 
assessment, on the other hand, there are multiple ways and methods of collecting information at different times 
and contexts (Law and Eckes,1995, p.29).
Dietel, Herman, and Knuth (1991) define assessment as “any method used to better understand the 
current knowledge that a student possesses” (online document). According to Mitchell (1992, in Law and Eckes, 
1995, p. 29) testing can be defined as “single-occasion, unidimensional, timed exercise, usually in multiple 
choice or short-answer form.” For a long time, student learning was measured only by testing in traditional 
school settings. Currently, it is realized that there is not only one way of gathering information about student 
learning. Furthermore, testing is seen as only one part of assessment and a broader concept of assessment is 
being widely used (Kulieke, Bakker, Collins, Fennimore, Fine, Herman, Jones, Raack, and Tinzman, 1990).