This presentation aims to discuss common assessment practices in virtual learning environments (VLEs) for the teaching of adults in academic settings. It highlights some contradictions between teaching practices and assessment procedures.
Assessment can be a powerful tool for contradictory forces - both for enhancing teaching and learning and for playing the role of a “disciplinary power” that will set the rules of what can and should be done in a virtual classroom. Most VLEs have built in mechanisms to track the number of accesses and posted messages made by students. This facility, when used for assessment purposes, can be a trigger for the dynamics of power relations between the tutor and the students (Land & Bayne, 2001). Other assessment strategies, such as group evaluation of collaborative work can also set up a climate of surveillance; a panoptical approach to teaching that seeks for students' participation and commitment, in Foucauldian terms (Foucault, 1969). |
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