Abstract

Higher education in emerging economies has taken advantage of several technology affordances for student assessment in the digital era. However, the use of educational technology remains an area of concern in this context because of unequal technology terrain. This issue is more difficult in distance education, where students live in and work in remote areas. Although distance education providers in emerging economies have started to adopt alternative student assessment strategies, their contexts often force them to continue using conventional assessment methods. Against this backdrop, through a pragmatic mode of inquiry, the authors describe a five-phase study in which they identified the student assessment elements in national quality criteria that are rooted in international standards. These elements were benchmarked against the practices at a higher institution, highlighting good practices and inherent challenges. The findings are discussed in light of the transactional distance theory (TDT), with possible implications for assessment in a digital era. Further research areas are highlighted.

摘要

新兴经济体的高等教育已经利用了数项技术能力来进行数字时代的学生评估。但是，由于技术领域不平等，在这种情况下，教育技术的使用仍然是一个值得关注的领域。在远程教育中，这个问题更加困难，因为远程教育是学生在偏远地区居住和工作的地方。尽管新兴经济体中的远程教育提供者已经开始采用替代性的学生评估策略，但他们的情况常常迫使他们继续使用常规评估方法。在这种背景下，作者通过一种务实的探究模式，描述了一个分为五个阶段的研究，在该研究中，他们确定了根植于国际标准中的国家质量标准中的学生评估要素。这些要素以较高机构的实践为基准，突出了良好实践和内在挑战。根据交易距离理论（TDT）讨论了这些发现，可能会对数字时代的评估产生影响。突出了进一步的研究领域。