Assessment in Virtual Learning Spaces

Abstract

This chapter examines how assessment spaces must change in response to the rapid development and uptake of new virtual learning spaces. Students are engaging in collaborative, cooperative learning activities in a spatially distributed environment, yet their assessment tasks are often delivered in traditional assessment spaces that bear little resemblance to their learning spaces. The assessment of students in virtual worlds, virtual laboratories, role-plays and serious games is examined and the case is presented for the wider use of evidence-centered assessment designs and stealth assessment techniques.