Teaching Practicum Assessment Application

Abstract

This chapter reports on an ongoing case study that focuses on the development of a computer-mediated communication technological solution intended to assess the teaching practicum (TP). The context of this chapter is the TP module at an open distance e-learning (ODeL) university in South Africa. This university is faced with the demanding task of arranging mandatory supervisory visits for purposes of assessment, for more than 40,000 student teachers located both inside and outside of the country. The TP module forms a major part of a teaching qualification as it provides the pedagogical space for students to apply, integrate, and acquire various forms of knowledge. While the traditional “manual model” is still the dominant mode of assessment, at ODeL institutions, it holds grave limitations, leaving thousands of students unassessed which undermines the value of the qualification. Given that, we currently find ourselves in the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, an information communication technology (ICT)-based response to this predicament arguably offers the most appropriate solution. Such a solution would however require innovative design, critical thinking, research, and funding. This chapter reports on the development of an ICT-based project on the verge of being piloted at the ODeL institution concerned, as well as contact institutions. Informed by a theoretical framework that draws on technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK), critical connectivity, and open source software (OSS), this chapter responds to the questions: “Why” would an ICT-based instrument offer an optimal solution to TP assessment? and “How” would an ICT-based application offer an optimal solution to the assessment of the TP module? After the first pilot cycle with the prototype application, improvements and refinements will be made before a second pilot run. The objective of this project is to produce a TP application to be used in both contact as well as in distant, remote, and real-time/delayed assessment.