The Use of ICT for the Assessment of Key Competences

This report assesses current trends in the area of ICT for learning and assessment in view of their value for supporting the assessment of Key Competences. Based on an extensive review of the literature, it provides an overview of current ICT-enabled assessment practices, with a particular focus on more recent developments that support the holistic assessment of Key Competences for Lifelong Learning in Europe. The report presents a number of relevant cases, discusses the potential of emerging technologies, and addresses innovation and policy issues for eAssessment. It considers both summative and formative assessment and considers how ICT can lever the potential of more innovative assessment formats, such as peer-assessment and portfolio assessment and how more recent technological developments, such as Learning Analytics, could, in the future, foster assessment for learning. Reflecting on the use of the different ICT tools and services for each of the eight different Key Competences for Lifelong Learning it derives policy options for further exploiting the potential of ICT for competence-based assessment.JRC.J.3-Information Societ

Personalised trails and learner profiling in an e-learning environment

This deliverable focuses on personalisation and personalised trails. We begin by introducing and defining the concepts of personalisation and personalised trails. Personalisation requires that a user profile be stored, and so we assess currently available standard profile schemas and discuss the requirements for a profile to support personalised learning. We then review techniques for providing personalisation and some systems that implement these techniques, and discuss some of the issues around evaluating personalisation systems. We look especially at the use of learning and cognitive styles to support personalised learning, and also consider personalisation in the field of mobile learning, which has a slightly different take on the subject, and in commercially available systems, where personalisation support is found to currently be only at quite a low level. We conclude with a summary of the lessons to be learned from our review of personalisation and personalised trails

Technology-enhanced Personalised Learning: Untangling the Evidence

Technology-enhanced personalised learning is not yet common in Germany, which is why we have tasked scientists with summarising the current status of international research on the matter. This study demonstrates the great potential of technology in implementing effective personalised learning. Nevertheless, it has not been assessed yet whether the practical implementation actually works: Even in countries such as the U.S., which lead the way in using techology in classroom settings, hardly any evaluation studies have been done to prove the effectiveness of technology-enhanced personalised learning. In the light of the above, the authors make recommendations for actions to be taken in Germany to make best use of the potential of technology in providing individual support and guidance to students

The Theory and Practice of Online Learning

Every chapter in the widely distributed first edition has been updated, and four new chapters on current issues such as connectivism and social software innovations have been added. Essays by practitioners and scholars active in the complex, diverse, and rapidly evolving field of distance education blend scholarship and research; practical attention to the details of teaching and learning; and mindful attention to the economics of the business of education