Impact on student learning from traditional continuous assessment and an e-assessment proposal

Is learning for assessment an inevitable outcome of assessment for learning? We plan to investigate on this - by showing the effects of traditional continuous assessment modes we have implemented, and inviting student opinions on an e-assessment proposal which was virtually tested in a university setup. Student's perceptions are checked in the case of traditional continuous assessment techniques vs. non continuous assessments and the effect tallied with the coursework marks obtained for two groups of students. Also classroom assessment vs. e-assessment options were posed to students who were exposed to the proposed e-assessment option and comments invited. In each case, the reasoning behind the choice of assessment and associated learning strategies are probed into. The e-assessment is proposed to implement continuous assessment especially for large classes and also as a medium to invoke a positive learning approach through the feedback mechanism available on the e-assessment tool. A simple algorithm is also proposed for essay e-assessment scoring.