Do we need Online assessment?

This is a questions many lecturers ask at the college where I work. Note that I did not refere to students' take on the issue and that's because students usually have a more 'pragmatic,' end-user perspective on what's happening in the classroom. To put it simply, students care less about how to achieve results than about results themselves.

Conversely, the notion of success for lecturers is related to how they would manage learning in accordance with syllabus and methodology. 

Called a 21st century teacher skill, the use of ICT, instructional technology, e-learning -you name it- has been forcibly inscribed on the agenda of many lecturers. Let's face it here, the main problem with using technology in the classroom is that:

Technology is evolving at a much faster pace than teachers' ability to assimilate it

Assessment is one area where technology is trying to revolutionize teaching. The trend started with web-based questionnaires for data collection then was seen in many other areas where performance of users has to be measured: driving license theoretical tests, psychology tests and screening phases for recruitment purposes etc. 
Online testing is not the new kid on the block of ELT. When compared to traditional testing online testing has clearly the edge. The following presentation explains this advantage:
          

Online Testing: An Authentic Twist to Traditional Assessment - Bloomsburg University Business Education Spring 2005 Workshop in Allentown, PA from mwiscount
As I have been involved for some time in the administration of online tests, I can safely admit that the whole business of online testing is still at the business level, that is, it is viewed more as a product to be marketed than a useful teacher tool. Sadly, the slides posted above reproduce this mercantile attitude to online testing. Publishers simply want to sell products rather than solve problems. 
What's more, covert marketing of this kind has been easily confounded with academic endeavour. I is not uncommon in this conjecture to book a specialized workshop or presentation in an international ELT conference and discover the sad truth that you were fooled into watching a fancy advertising campaign of a new book, website or a ridiculously expensive tab.

Please don't get me wrong here. I believe that marketers are absolutely justified in their hunt for potential customers, yet I feel that selling products to the uninformed teacher population is like selling UV glasses to the blind or shoes to the crippled. 

I might come back to the issue of technophobia and the perils of digital migration in a future post, but suffice to say now that the teaching profession needs tools to make learning happen rather than products teachers are left with no options but to consume.