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This study compared higher education dental undergraduate student performance in online assessments with performance in traditional paper-based tests and investigated students' perceptions of the fairness and acceptability of online tests, and showed performance to be comparable. The project design involved two parallel cross-over trials, one in Year 3 (n=132) of the dental curriculum, one in Year 5 (n=134). A total of 266 students undertook related tests of the same knowledge base in both online and traditional paper formats. Order of presentation of the test form was randomized. One hundred and thirty-two students in Year 3 additionally completed questions concerning their perceptions of the acceptability and fairness of the online examination process. Focus group discussions were held with groups of students (n=30) from both Year 3 and 5 to explore their perceptions of the online format. The online tests were created using the commercial software package MaxExam (Bristol, UK). The results were analysed using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) with the order of presentation being entered as a variable in the analysis. The results of the study showed that for both Years 3 and 5 students there was a high degree of consistency in performance between the two versions of the tests, although a minority of students performed better in the online version of the test. Over 70 per cent of students rated the online test as acceptable, and 90 per cent felt that the online format did not disadvantage them even in a ‘high-stakes' situation. From these results, we conclude that online assessment does not confer any disadvantage to students. Students perceive such assessment to be both fair and acceptable, and to have some advantages over the traditional paper-based methods of assessment.

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The national learning outcomes assessment (LOA) movement and online learning in higher education emerged during roughly the same period. What has not yet developed is a sophisticated understanding of the power of online learning and its concomitant technologies to change how LOA programs are viewed, designed and administered. This paper considers how emerging techniques, such as data mining and learning analytics, allow the use of performance and behavioral data to improve student learning not just for future iterations of a program but in real time for current students. Also considered are powerful learning methodologies which pre-date online learning but have found renewed utility when coupled with new technologies for assessing and assisting student learners. In this paper, the authors postulate that technology will enable educators to design courses and programs that learn in the same way that individual students learn, and offer some conditions that they believe are important to further this goal. The paper concludes with a consideration of how the faculty role will necessarily change as a result of these advances in understandings of using technology to improve learning outcomes.

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A level 6 module was developed in order to implement innovative assessment strategies and encourage higher level learning. The module tutor (one of this paper's authors) was seconded from teaching duties (40 per cent) to the University's academic development unit to work on the module transformation. The rationale for the redesign of the assessment strategy was to enhance the student learning experience whilst taking an innovative approach to computer aided learning and assessment. Information technology enabled assessment strategies and ways of using computer based assessment in higher level learning were examined. The redesigned module has been delivered two years running, and the students' experience of the module evaluated following the final taught session each year. This paper outlines the experiences of the learners and the tutor and considers the potential for future development of blended learning and assessment.

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This paper investigates the potential of a wiki (FlexWiki) to support collaborative authoring of web resources in authentic coursework by two different sets of education students at different stages of their professional development. Research questions included: (1) how the selected wiki could be blended with curriculum activities and existing technologies to complete collaborative tasks; (2) student and tutor expectations concerning collaborative learning and whether these expectations were met; (3) the barriers and enablers of using the wiki and perceptions of the task-technology fit. Key findings included that tutors and students were able to use the wiki to complete tasks; tutors and students were positive about learning outcomes but collaboration was not as co-constructive as hoped for; there were tensions between expectations of collaboration and assessment practices that affected how students collaborated; differences between participants in their group interaction, degree of co-presence and familiarity with technology led to differences in perceptions of usefulness and actual wiki use; and version-tracking data from the wiki proved unreliable on its own for gaining insights into actual collaborative processes. These findings suggest the importance of considering detailed local contexts of use when deciding to adopt new tools for supporting collaboration.

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