learning - Academic Conferences Limited

Rosario Kane-Iturrioz
Regarding language learning, there are few studies focusing on the exploration of students’
experiences of web-based formative assessments and feedback and even less dealing with the
specific issues affecting beginner language learners (Furnborough and Truman, 2009).
This paper reports on students’ perceptions on formative online assessment and a multi-faceted
approach to providing formative feedback on a blended e-learning module. The current work draws
upon some of the qualitative and quantitative data collected over a four-year period from a total of 100
students studying Spanish for Business at beginner’s level. Using the annual data gathered, this study
sought to answer three questions, namely,
Did students perceive the formative assessments (Progress Tests) as an effective method of
checking their own learning?
Whether the formative feedback provided online involving text and oral formats had been useful in
supporting students’ learning?
Were students’ perceptions about the improvements in their language skills corroborated by the
summative tests results?
2. Method
2.1 Participants
The study was conducted over a four-year period and all participants were enrolled in a 10 credit
module which focused on Spanish for Business at beginner’s level. The module lasted 10 weeks (2
contact hours per week) in 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 but was changed to 20 weeks (one hour
contact per week) for all the language modules within the Employability Programme during 2010-11 in
order to accommodate requests from some language tutors and students.
2.2 Research setting
The structure of the module included an extensive e-learning component supported by a limited
number of in-class introductory and revision sessions in order to provide flexibility in time, place and
pace of learning to university-wide undergraduate students and to minimize feelings of anxiety about
learning in what for many was an unfamiliar environment.
The online materials were based on an innovative e-learning template designed and developed in
2006-07 that integrated several learning technologies and incorporated interactive and reusable
learning objects. All the online activities and exercises provided immediate computer feedback and
allowed students multiple attempts (Kane-Iturrioz, 2009). The online workbook was re-mastered using
the authoring programme SoftChalk in 2009-10 in order to incorporate a greater range of interactive
activities. These materials were available to students on the University’s virtual learning environment
(VLE.).
2.3 Formative assessment
Formative assessments called ‘Progress Tests’ were aimed at providing students with the appropriate
means to check their progress. They also offered tutors the opportunity to personalise their feedback
based on students’ strengths and weaknesses in order to guarantee that they had achieved through
their online learning the necessary knowledge, understanding and language skill development which
would facilitate a more productive engagement with the communicative activities to be performed in
the revision sessions.
The Progress Tests were developed in the same computer-based format as those in the two
summative assessments and delivered using the assessment tool provided by the University’s VLE in
order to be consistent with the module’s main learning mode. Consequently, these tests also aimed at
familiarizing students with a test format that was new to the majority of them. The questions covered
all four language skills and reflected real life business scenarios. Multiple attempts were allowed for
both the tests and the questions within each test.
Changes in the organization and content of the Progress Test were implemented throughout the four
years of the study in order to accommodate students’ requests and syllabus modification. In the first
year of the study, Progress Tests containing five questions were developed for Topics 1 & 2, Topics 3
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