Online Testing Tools & The Challenges

The following article is derived from this link. I thought sharing it with all the colleagues would be interesting, so as we all benefit from it.

 

Have you ever wondered if there is an e-testing tool that you can create as an online placement, formative, summative and diagnostic test in your classes?

Testmoz is a free online testing tool which includes four types of questions: True/false, multiple choice, multiple response, and fill in the blanks. Online test generators are so practical that they can be customized to suit learners' needs. Thereby, you can find out which language areas your learners might need more practise on and correct the mistakes. However, you need to take a note of your test unique URLs if you don’t want to register the website.

learners could get an ample amount of practice and enhance the learning process in your class tremendously with Testmoz. So here are some more free testing applications:

1)That Quiz: includes vocabulary quizzes. Teachers can share tests with each other.

2)Quiz Revolution: enables embedding interactive multimedia quizzes on social networking sites.

3) Qedoc: aids testing at all levels including young and adult learners. With the quiz player, you can insert any multimedia content into your quizzes in order to visualize the testing contents.

However, we need to consider the three drawbacks of e-testing applications which are cheating, limited connection to the internet and test preparation time. First, learners might cheat from each other if you implement quizzes both in class and at home. Second, teachers need to make sure that test results are not lost when the electricity is cut off. Finally, it’s very time consuming to design tests with tricky options.

As a result, teachers need to plan these online tests carefully in order to have a successful assessment in classrooms.

By Yildiz Terzioglu.

For more information about the publisher and the website see this Link.

First week in the Spring 2013 Webskills Course

 Since the very first steps in the Webskills E-Teacher Course offered by the University of Oregon| The American English institute, we began to acquire loads of information and knowledge about developing our webskills in teaching English. The course is actually more than we dreamed it to be!

The premier week is dedicated mainly for getting used to the nature of the course and introduce ourselves in order to know each others. Although there are not a lot of tasks to do this week, but still we are enjoying and benefiting from each others' experiences. All the participants in the course are qualified teachers who have wide and great experiences in the field of teaching built up by their passion toward teaching English through the years. The discussions seem to be very valuable and informative, as all the members respect the rules and take the discussion topics seriously and respond to it professionally. Respecting others' opinions is also an evident factor that gives the course a special taste of high value and reflects the members' cooperation and credibility.

Particularly, the course has provided us with many helpful readings that facilitated the way to deal with the course. First, reaching the course's website Nicenet was so easy because of the instructors' regular notifications and clear instructions. The course's website supplies us with all the necessary information that enables us to successfully understand the technique of the course and the tasks we are to do. In this first week, besides introducing ourselves and knowing each others by posting in the website Nicenet, we also had to fill out a needs analysis assessment survey that would enable the course designers to verify the needs of the participants before starting the course. Another interesting task that we are asked to do this week is to create our own blogs and share them together so as exchanging information would be easy and effective.

The readings and resources provided by the course website are so important and adds a lot to our teaching repertoire. There are so many documents, PDF articles, and links of websites available to us, so as we can read and use them in developing our teaching techniques. For example, couple of links are attached that shows the importance of using the blogs in teaching English, and manifest the way the teachers can create their own blogs. These links and articles also provide clear definition of the blogs, their types, and each type's uses and advantages. Some links as well show live examples of SLA and ELT Blogs that seem to be useful and practical at the same time.

Frankly speaking,  the course is really amazing and more than I imagined it to be. It is only the first week and I cannot count the benefits that I have gained till now. Honestly, I am feeling so excited than I have ever been before. I do appreciate the great effort made by the University of Oregon and thank all those who worked hard to come up with such a valuable program that I was really looking for since long time ago.