Why You Should Be Using Online Assessment Software
With eLearning on the rise in schools and for corporate training purposes, some instructors may be wondering how to assess learner progress in a remote setting. The good news is that online assessment software offers numerous advantages over traditional pen-and-paper tests, making it easier than ever before to accurately measure how learners are doing and intervene if they need help. If your organization is searching for a modern approach to employee assessment, the experts at Echo360 have developed a learning engagement platform called EchoPoll that offers simple yet powerful functionality. It’s predicated on our proven e³ philosophy of equity, evidence, and engagement, so read on to discover how we can help you bring online and hybrid learning to the next level.
Are Assessments Really That Important?
We understand that some are moving away from the traditional assessment as a means of evaluating learners, but they can still offer important insight as one of your employee assessment tools. Examinations can help engage learners by giving them a clear goal to work toward. Likewise, reviewing completed exams can help your organization’s employees better understand and address any shortcomings or knowledge gaps. Many regulatory bodies also mandate tests for continuing education credits or certification purposes, meaning that your organization may be required to administer them even if you would prefer not to. Why not do what you can to make them worthwhile?
What Should I Look for in Online Assessment Software?
Online assessment software should be easy for both instructors and learners to use, so an intuitive interface is one of the biggest must-haves. For example, EchoPoll offers a robust assessment builder that allows instructors to choose from multiple types of questions easily, including multiple-choice, true/false, and hot spot items. You can also assign assessments to individuals, groups of learners, or your entire organization with just a few clicks, making it easy to include everyone. We recommend creating practice assessments to help your learners understand what the assessment will be like, reducing the effects of any test anxiety on the real thing.
EchoPoll is flexible enough to accommodate multiple approaches to test-taking as well. For instance, instructors can choose whether to allow learners to take an assessment multiple times, see the correct answer with an explanation of why it’s correct after answering, and immediately see their score. These tools can help learners seek the help they need on their own, removing some of the responsibility that instructors are shouldering.
Of course, EchoPoll also makes it easy to analyze performance on the individual and class-wide levels. Our platform’s dashboard is sortable, making it easy to get the evidence you need to enroll learners in remediation and prove the completion of mandatory training. You can also look at each learner’s response for specific items and solicit feedback to help you design more effective assessments in the future.
You can even use employee assessment as a tool to promote engagement. If a course includes a large amount of information or a long video, adding an inline quiz allows learners to test their understanding of the material while breaking it into more digestible pieces. You can also encourage learners to share their scores on the platform’s communication tools to encourage friendly competition and the creation of an organizational culture that values learning.
Is Online Assessment Software Fair?
Great question! While it can be difficult for instructors to accommodate learning differences such as dyslexia or visual impairments on pen-and-paper assessments, online assessment software makes it easy to create personalized assessments to ensure that any such challenges do not impact a test-taker’s score. EchoPoll meets or exceeds all WCAG 2.0 guidelines, ensuring equity for all.
We earnestly believe that our learning engagement platform is engaged learning made easy, and that includes assessments and the insights they produce. We invite you to book a demo today and see everything it can do for yourself.