Many online assessment programs, including commercially available programs like Blackboard and WebCT, offer easy-to-use modules for various types of testing. Multiple choice, true/false and matching questions are especially well-suited to online assessment. Many textbook publishers offer standardized test banks that may be uploaded directly to these programs or accessed directly from the publisher's dedicated website. Automated grading is a fantastic time-saving device for instructors.
Online assessments also include many options for asynchronous discussions (meaning, online "discussions" that take place at different points in time, unlike synchronous discussions that would happen in a classroom). Blackboard, for example, offers an assessment tool called "Discussion Board" that allows an instructor to post a question and then grade the student contributions to a class-wide discussion that may take place over a week or longer online. This is especially useful for students who find it difficult to assert themselves in a conventional classroom dynamic.
On the other hand, online assessments may suffer from frequent violations of academic codes of conduct. Instructors must put in place polices that ensure, for example, that the person completing the assessment is in fact the student registered in the course. Also, students taking online assessments might also access websites that unfairly help them with the assessment. Requiring passwords and imposing stricter proctoring guidelines is often required.
Technical support is essential for effective use of online assessments. Passwords are forgotten, computers crash, power fails and cables are unplugged while students are taking online assessments, and they regularly need help getting back online--and rescuing, if possible, an interrupted assessment.
Online assessments also change the nature of the relationship between the instructor and the student. In a conventional class assessment--particularly one involving oral presentations--a student can glean much information from an instructor's tone, inflection and body language, and adapt his responses appropriately, and this is difficult with online assessments. On the other hand, the asynchronous nature of online coursework allows for a much broader scope of communication through the Internet at any time of day or night.