I prefer my students do their assignments on paper because its a lot easier to grade. I have yet to see an online method that works as easily as paper -- I have often though about developing my own but have not had the time. One example, you give an online test or exam, you have to click about 50 times to get through all the essay questions, and then you still have to get the grades into some other system since many of them can't import/export a standard format. And if those essays are homework and a student turns it in late, you get to the end of the semester and the student asks why you didnt give them credit; they have to notify you they did the assignment after the due date, otherwise you wont know its completed. The alternative is checking all your assignments online periodically to see if any new submissions are posted from previouse assignments. I know this sounds like its not a big deal, but multiply these frustrations by 120 students, and you start to get an idea that its not as simple as you make it out to be.
I think one innovation that might make this easier is standardizing of test formats in XML, so they can easily be migrated between platforms. Standardizing grade sheets might help too, so when you start using one system you are not locked in. I have tests in one online system that I do not care for, but to migrate to Moodle I have to rewrite everything from scratch.
The bottom line is that whether your students use pen and paper, fancy online systems like Moodle etc, learning does not change much. Students still need to learn, and professors still need to asses them in basically the same way. If technology does not offer some advantage that can't be replicated with "stone knives and bear skins" you gain nothing and its difficult to justify moving to technology.
> And if those essays are homework and a student turns it in late, you get to the end of the semester and the student asks why you didnt give them credit; they have to notify you they did the assignment after the due date, otherwise you wont know its completed. The alternative is checking all your assignments online periodically to see if any new submissions are posted from previouse assignments. I know this sounds like its not a big deal, but multiply these frustrations by 120 students, and you start to get an idea that its not as simple as you make it out to be.
Isn't the right thing, just to mechanically enforce due dates without excuses or exceptions? Students tend to procrastinate enough already.
They did try to standardise the test formats, but the big companies (who didn't actually want interoperability) just turned it into a big XML snowjob, subverting the standardising groups in a similar way to Microsoft's OOXML debacle.
There is some interoperability, mostly because the open systems like Moodle reverse-engineer stuff. I believe some of the systems now encrypt their output to prevent this, which is absolutely shocking to me, but typical of big corporate software which is what these big players are.
I think one innovation that might make this easier is standardizing of test formats in XML, so they can easily be migrated between platforms. Standardizing grade sheets might help too, so when you start using one system you are not locked in. I have tests in one online system that I do not care for, but to migrate to Moodle I have to rewrite everything from scratch.
The bottom line is that whether your students use pen and paper, fancy online systems like Moodle etc, learning does not change much. Students still need to learn, and professors still need to asses them in basically the same way. If technology does not offer some advantage that can't be replicated with "stone knives and bear skins" you gain nothing and its difficult to justify moving to technology.