Administering MHRD guidelines-compliant eassessments through moodle

The MHRD “Guidelines for Developing Online Courses for SWAYAM” compel the adoption of the `Four Quadrant Model' for offering eLearning Programmes and/or developing and delivering e-Content; wherein the fourth quadrant is completely apportioned to `Assessment'. The emphasis of the Fourth Quadrant-Assessment is on Formative Assessment. In the traditional scenario, Academic Institutions and/or educators encounter certain limitations in designing challenging Formative Assessment tasks that promote deeper learning and critical thinking among students. eAssessments enable institutions not only alleviate such limitations but also provide solutions to the other challenges associated with the traditional assessments. An integrated eAssessment system facilitates: eSubmission, eMarking, eGrading, eFeedback and eReports. The benefits of eAssessment over traditional, paper-based assessment include: lower long term costs, instant feedback to students, greater flexibility with respect to location and timing, improved reliability with machine marking, improved impartiality, and enhanced question styles that incorporate interactivity and multimedia. eLearning technologies, such as Moodle enable institutions to assess students' performance electronically and engage students in self-assessment and peer assessment. This paper presents the potential benefits of eAssessment and discusses how Moodle functionality and modules allow Indian Academic Institutions administer MHRD Guidelines-compliant eAssessments.