Distributed Transcripts for Online Learning: Design Issues

Abstract: A set of guiding principles is stated for the development of standards for representing student educational assessment information. These principles support the learner, rather than the academic institution, as the focus of an information system architecture. Unlike traditional academic transcripts, the items in portfolios, subjective written evaluations, self-assessments, and computer-based records of activity are complex representations of student achievement, involvement, or inclinations. Even more so than traditional grades, they depend upon a great deal of contextual information in order to be intepreted in useful and reliable ways. This paper also identifies the essential informational components of alternative assessment records and suggests a standard form for their representation. The consideration of evidence, judgment, context, and justification, as described in this paper, is relevant to the improvement of conventional (e.g., multiple-choice test) assessment methodologies, as well. Considerations of systemic educational reform issues such as equity, group learning, lifelong learning, locus of responsibility for learning, and privacy are briefly described insofar as they impact the design of assessment systems.