E-Assessment and mathematical learning: A Spanish overview

Abstract

Assessment can be used to enhance student learning (formative assessment) or to control the apprenticeship (summative assessment). The two ways can be used according to the requirements or needs. Nowadays, the student must be the protagonist of his learning, and it is important that he receives immediate feedback of the learning process. The normal work or the real life for the current students includes the quick answers provided by technology. Therefore technology allows the development of new models of assessment easy to implement. Technology-supported assessments are already being used as a formative assessment and some influence in the summative sense of grading student achievement in some Spanish universities. After some general ideas concerning the learning process, this paper analyses the various ways in which technology is used in assessment activities of basic mathematical subjects in Spanish engineering degrees. The results are supported by the construction of a data base of Learning Guides (information provided by the universities to the students).