E-Evaluation in virtual environments: automated versus personalized methodologies

Stephen Beaumont, Argentina, ID LLCE2016-280;       When designing any educational process, we must analyze all the variables involved in this process: curriculum design, didactic transposition, the learning environment, evaluation methodologies, etc. In particular, evaluation methodology is a key component and as such we must analyze it and try to optimize it in order to achieve a feedback to keep improving this educational process. Of course, this evaluation is not only applicable to students or course participants but to all these other variables we mentioned. Therefore, we must clearly define and implement a correct evaluation methodology when designing any virtual teaching process. In the particular case of e-learning pedagogical processes, we can find a wide range of methodologies, from automated to personalized ones. To illustrate this with examples, I would like to analyze two completely different models. First we analyzed the peer review methodology, where each participant in a virtual course, to complete the assessment of each module should evaluate at least a determined number of works from their peers. This methodology is popular in one particular scenario which is not present (at least in equal dimensions) in classroom teaching processes. This is the possibility of including, within one particular course, an enormous number of participants which would be impossible even to imagine in a classroom teaching process. This is where the concept of “mass education” appears, and with it, the concept of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). On the other hand, we can see the results of personalized methodologies, in which the main instructor or a coordinator or assistant interacts directly with each student and performs feedback on each of the work, inquiries or suggestions from them.

Keywords: Educational process, e-learning, mass education