Teaching and Assessing of Affective Characteristics: A Critical Missing Link in Online Education

Online education, which is as a platform for delivering educational content and facilitating instruction – student interaction over a computer network came into limelight in the 1990’s and has been growing rapidly ever since. 96% of Universities in the United States of America currently offer online learning opportunities; with more than 3million students enrolled. In addition, several colleges and universities around the globe now offer degrees that can be accomplished online. The promise and potential of online education is laudable; it has the ability to make education more convenient and accessible. Advances in technology have made this possible since learning can take place ‚asynchronously‛ anytime and anywhere. However, studies have shown that teaching and assessment in schools;within the in-class, blended and online set up, are concentrated on cognitive achievement to the detriment of affective and psychomotor development of learners. In the light of this, and because of the fact that comprehensive assessment is an indispensable aspect of any meaningful educational program,attempt is made in this paper to examine the implications of the aversion to the teaching and assessing of affective characteristics in online education. The paper also makes strategic suggestions as a way forward

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