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Assessment of higher education is a multifaceted and multidimensional concept. Therefore this paper focuses on assessment of preferences by business university students. The aim of this paper is to identify preferable course of study and benefits of business higher education in case private business university. The paper shows how students perceive and evaluate study support by modern information and communication technologies and identifies most important areas of their preferences during studies. The results are based on a quantitative survey by questionnaire data collection from all students of surveyed Business University. Descriptive statistics, correlation analyisis, analysis of differences and factor analysis was conducted to find responses from students regarding their perception of the educational process. The analysis found groups of variables with significant appearance of students’ main preferences. The results show orientation of students on benefits of university education mostly in career development (p = 0.000). Prefered curiculum of graduates most importantly contains independent work, significant position at job market and self management. In the area of study support students mostly prefer flexibility and availability of study texts and materials online using mobile applications (Cramer’s V = 0.314, p = 0.013). Other significant group of students focus on expert teachers and knowledge and online / mobile consultaions. The results may help to set up students’ support in order to address current students’ needs and expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a narrative on the state of the question about the teaching and assessment of generic soft skills through Virtual Environments (VEs) in universities, based on consultation of scientific journals in electronic and printed format published between 2000 and 2014, as well as research projects focused on the development of generic skills through VEs. The paper summarises the theoretical and empirical contributions as a way of providing a greater insight into a line of research that began barely a decade ago. Soft skills related to student training, when combined with specific skills, enable better performance in personal, academic, social and organisational settings. This premise implies the need to consider the development of new methodologies for teaching, learning and assessment of soft skills. Results include the value of soft skills in training university students, as well as the development of innovative projects focused on the provision of teaching and assessment procedures that are feasible and effective for the achievement of soft skills assessment in VEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurship is a novel course in the curriculum for students in the Information Technology (IT) degree program at La Trobe University, Bundoora, Australia. In comparison to other IT-related courses, the Entrepreneurship course seeks to develop business management knowledge and skills; its learning design is thus different to that of other courses in the IT program. The concept of constructive alignment for curriculum renewal suggests that there are several components of good course design. In this paper, we use the principles of constructive alignment to analyze and redesign several components of the Entrepreneurship course. The focus is on reviewing and aligning the assessment tasks to ensure an effective evaluation and the achievement of student learning outcomes. Since assessment drives student learning, we describe the innovative assessment tasks that were implemented to enhance student learning, provide the rationale for the design of these tasks as supported by the current literature, and reflect on possible future improvements. The course redesign process and the constructive alignment and innovative assessment can be applied to other courses in the field, and more broadly to curriculum, teaching, and learning in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Martell and Calderon (2005), assessment is an ongoing process that involves planning, discussion, consensus building, reflection, measuring, analyzing, and improving based on the data and artifacts gathered about a learning objective. Assessment encompasses a range of activities including testing, performances, project ratings, and observations (Orlich, Harder, Callahan & Gibson, 2004). Impacting education from early childhood through graduate studies, the assessment movement is based on standards and outcomes, measuring results, and holding educational institutions accountable for student learning. Oversight bodies and accrediting agencies are beginning to require the establishment of learner-centered outcomes that reflect the well-rounded knowledge, competencies, and abilities preferred in today's students; the alignment of curriculum to reflect the desired progression and cognitive development of learners; the collection of data that demonstrates the satisfaction of learning objectives; and the use of assessment information to inform decision making (Buzzetto-More, 2006). The use of information technologies and e-learning strategies can provide an efficient and effective means of assessing teaching and learning effectiveness by supporting traditional, authentic, and alternative assessment protocols (Bennett, 2002). According to Vendlinski and Stevens (2002) technology offers new measures for assessing learning that will yield rich sources of data and expand the ways in which educators understand both learning mastery, and teaching effectiveness. The use of information technologies and e-learning to augment the assessment process may include: pre and post testing, diagnostic analysis, student tracking, rubric use, the support and delivery of authentic assessment through project based learning, artifact collection, and data aggregation and analysis. The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the origins, evolution, and key concepts of assessment as well as illustrate some of the ways in which technology and e-Learning serve as the most promising mechanisms for satisfying assessment goals and objectives. This work is based on an exhaustive review of literature, the analysis of a number of critically acclaimed assessment programs, as well as the authors' own work in the development and use of e-Learning in the design, and implementation of an assessment program at a mid-sized institution of higher education located in the rural Eastern Shore of Maryland in the United States. The program being profiled includes computerized longitudinal testing, online diagnostic testing, competitive networked simulations, rubrics, student discussion transcripts, taped presentations, and electronic portfolios. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]