Thoughts on on-line assessment

I have been doing lots of research on on-line teaching and learning recently. I have gotten into the habit of downloading loads of podcasts from various websites, putting them on my 2GB iriver media player and listening to them as I walk my cocker spaniel pup around the neighborhood (http://www.edtechtalk.com or http://www.palomar.edu/atrc/FeaturesIndexes/TipsIndex.htm). I'm a high school science teacher and I remember learning about the hey day of German scientific scholarship around the early 1900's. It seemed like these amazingly brilliant scientists (Planck, Bohr, Einstein, etc) would always be taking walks and thinking about big ideas and problems in quantum physics. So, in the same spirit, I walk around the neighborhood pondering ideas in the field of education and teaching.

One idea I thought about the other day as I walked my over-eager, frantic 1 yr old pup was about on-line assessment. Delivering tests on line seems to have some major advantages. Students can decide when they are prepared to take a test. For blended classes teachers can offer frequenct assessment that doesn't take time out of class instruction. Automatically scored tests would allow for more frequent assessment and data collection on student progress. Online assessment can take advantage of multimedia technology to tap into students' various learning styles and intelligences (questions can use the full power and richness of the internet). Imagine asking students to visit a website or demonstrate an understanding of key core concepts or skills by interacting with a simulation or flash animation. Also for blended classes students with IEPs, who need extended time for test taking, accomodations could easily be made.

Having discussed the numerous advantages of online assessment, one major concern that teachers have with on-line assessment is with cheating. How can teachers know for sure that students aren't using prohibited materials or having other students take tests for them? It seems to me that these are realistic concerns to have. Especially with high school students, I believe cheating could become a real problem. One solution to this problem may be with web monitoring. I'm not sure of the legal issues involved with teachers monitoring students via webcam, but it seems like this would be an obvious way of deterring cheaters on tests. Students would have to login to the website for taking tests and then activate their webcam. The teacher then could monitor the student while the student works on the test. The combination of login information and web cam would make this mode of assessment pretty secure. I would be interested to hear what other teachers have tried with online assessment.