What is assessment: A brief overview of assessment and how Moodle supports it
You may be familiar with the concepts of qualitative and quantitative approaches to assessment. We can describe students' work in words, commenting on strengths and weaknesses. That's called qualitative assessment. Alternatively, we can assign a numerical score to their work. That's called quantitative assessment. They both have pros and cons:
|
Qualitative |
Quantitative |
|---|---|
|
Describes behavior and is often easier for students to understand |
Easier to classify |
|
Students can act on feedback more easily |
Easier to count |
|
Provides data in the form of words |
Easier to do statistics |
|
More subjective |
More objective |
|
Takes longer to set up |
Harder for teachers and students to interpret |
|
Takes longer to review |
- |
Choosing which type of assessment to use depends very much on what you want to achieve. If you want to encourage students to practice and work things out for themselves, qualitative assessment will be more helpful...
