9 de enero de 2015

Student Perception Of Mid-Level Distance Technical Education Regarding Evaluated Tasks In The Virtual Environment

Student Perception Of Mid-Level Distance Technical Education Regarding Evaluated Tasks In The Virtual Environment

Alexandre Costa Quintana, Vera Lucia Pinheiro Fernandes

Abstract

The advent of information and communication technology enables the process of teaching and learning to not be limited to the classroom; it breaks these boundaries allowing students to develop their knowledge at work, home or any other placer, and at a time that is most convenient. Thus, distance education is gaining ground in this context. As a result, another question arises: how do we assess the student? In a virtual environment, students are normally evaluated virtually, for example, by means of activities provided by the professor. On the other hand, students can be assessed in other ways. Distance education, as a relatively new type of education, is undergoing a process where many questions arise. One of the main questions is how to evaluate the student. Usually this evaluation is done virtually, e.g. through activities proposed by the teacher, and other class activities. Therefore, the activity that is being evaluated becomes of great importance to the student. Besides, adding to the final grade makes him/her feel part of the learning process: In addition, the student can participate in the activities, chats and forums. In this sense, this paper aims to verify the students’ perception of mid-level distance technical education – and their performance during the evaluation of tasks in a virtual learning environment. This work was performed by means of a descriptive approach to analyzing quantitative and qualitative results. The results show that students recognize the tasks evaluated as being extremely important in their learning process. However, there are some points that need extra attention such as courseware objectives, greater involvement of coordinators/teachers/tutors in the answers to student questions, plus the question of time for posting tasks. It is believed that by placing greater attention to these demands, the assessed tasks will be increasingly relevant and important in the teaching-learning process.

Keywords

Distance education, tasks evaluated, education

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/ried.17.2.12695