Taking entire teaching and learning online was not the only challenge schools had to face when the pandemic struck. Next big worry was how to accurately assess the students in a remote setting and its efficacy.

A study has suggested that remote assessment was as effective as in-person assessment. It was also observed that exceptionally low scores were less common than exceptionally high scores in remote assessment. The study is of the opinion that that lack of extremely low scores were of the students who took assessments more seriously at home with parents nearby. Extremely high scores could be the result of parents helping their children. In such a scenario it is best to talk to parents and let them know that helping students answer test questions does not help the school assess the child’s performance accurately. Parents helping students was generally seen in younger students. Any good school management system also keeps a record of each student’s previous years assessments to compare with.

With students learning from outside school for quite some time now, a variation in student skills, abilities and knowledge has been observed. To aid teachers help students progress certain digital tools can be provided to the teachers. So assessment becomes very important to discover the gaps in a student’s learning and to bring him back on track.

Source: EdSurge