Design Guidelines for Self-Assessment Support for Adult Academic Distance Learning

Abstract

This contribution focuses on adult distance learning. Based on experiences at the Open University of the Netherlands we investigate specific problems that our students have with self-assessment and metacognition while studying. Starting from a literature review and complementing this with available student data from our teaching research center, we developed a conceptual framework that was iteratively adjusted and assessed by a questionnaire study and interviews. This allowed us to develop design guidelines for self-assessment support in distance learning environments. These guidelines were reviewed by experts. The input from the experts was used to modify the guidelines and iterate until they were considered complete. Tangible designs (i.e., mock-ups) for each of the self-assessment methods were proposed. These tangible designs were prototyped for later evaluation. Finally, we provide our conclusions and propose recommendations for actual application and systematic design.

Adult Students Become Professionals Teaching or Learning – What’s in a Name?

“…Wherever we are teaching, we explained our view: Our students are adults aiming at being a professional. At the end of a course, they should have acquired metacognition on the course domain: they should be able to understand what they learned, how they reached their level of professionality, and how they intend in future to keep up with their developing domain of professional computing [9].…”