Graphical Online Assessment System

This two-year project, begun in 2004, was funded by The University of Texas at Austin Center for Instructional Technologies’ FAST Tex Award Program and a Vision Award. Dr. Paul Resta served as director. The capabilities of an online assessment system used in Dr. Resta’s courses for self-, peer-, and product-assessment were expanded and improved. A Web-based tool was created that allows instructors to easily develop rubrics to assess contributions and performance of individual team members, as well as the performance or products of a team. The system graphically displays self- and peer-assessment results for each student, and automatically provides customized feedback to students based on their scores on the various assessment elements.

In spring 2006, system documentation was prepared for its release and beta use at the University of Texas at Austin. If the UT-wide implementation is successful, the program, which has been developed as open source code, will be made freely available on the Web.