Development of formative assessment tools for knowledge building

Abstract

There is mounting interest in the large-scale implementation of knowledge building recently. However, there still lack of tools that are widely available for teachers and students to self-assess their knowledge building efforts. It is also critical to develop a theoretical perspective on formative assessment that is deeply integrated with knowledge building and colaborative learning. In such contexts, we propose a web-based tool for formative assessment of knowledge building which works with Knowledge Forum®. The tool adopts a three-tier system architecture and is developed by comtemporary programming languages and technologies including JAVA®, AJAX, and relational databases as MySQL®. Such system design and development cater to scalability, reusability, and future development. Extensive proofs-of-concept and testings on the tool have been performed to ensure its correctness and soundness. At the workshop, we will discuss about the underlying ideas of the tool. We will also provide sample output and engage participants in discussions about the uability of the information generated.