Teaching and Assessment Online

There is some concern regarding the efficacy of teaching and assessment online. Sufficient numbers of studies have addressed these concerns and found that online education and onground education both result in similar outcomes regarding student understanding and retention. This is reassuring because it means that we can teach using the online format and not feel as though we are short-changing our students. As professors, we want to guide our students and transfer as much knowledge to them as we possibly can in the allotted period of time. Our profession is not known for high levels of remuneration. Thus, the satisfaction gleaned from being able to make a difference in the lives of our charges is our greatest reward. An important aspect of college-level education is assessments. Assessments gauge how well the class has mastered the information and how effective we are as educators. However, we cannot rely on our student's code of ethics to be honest and above-board on assessments. Thus, there is a conundrum regarding giving exams online and minimizing cheating. This is a chronic problem in the onground classroom and is no less a problem in an online classroom. However, there are steps that can be taken to minimize cheating in online an classroom when the test is completely online and unsupervised. You can make an exam open-book and give the class sufficient time to finish the exam. That would certainly minimize cheating. However, it is possible to offer a closed-book test if you so desire to do so. You control the time-period for which the test is offered. Thus, make the time period just long enough to answer the questions and have a brief review of the answers. This will minimize students' ability to use their books. Many textbooks come with standardized test banks. This makes it very easy for professors. Have the questions randomly drawn from the test bank. Try randomizing both the questions and the answers so that no two students will have the same order of the questions. This will make it difficult for them to take the test together and collaborate. These strategies work. I have compared the results of online and onground tests and have found the grade distribution to be similar. Thus, teaching and assessment online are comparable to that found in onground classrooms. If you wish to earn a substantial income as an adjunct professor, go to: http://www.adjunctteachingonline.com