Chapter 49
Overview

Volume 3 of the Voctade final deliverables is in four parts:

The first part sets out to characterize the essentials of a distance system as the creation of an educational environment for students studying at a distance. The essential component which informs the educational environment is the evaluation and the testing mechanisms used, which lead to certification. It follows that systems which do not create an educational environment for distance learning and do not characterise it by valid evaluation and testing criteria, should not antucipate success as adistance system.

The second , third and fourth parts present the empirical study of evaluation and testing strategies of distance systems in the European Union .

The contribution of the Laboratorio di Pedagogia sperimentale (Laboratory of Experimental Pedagogy of the University of Rome III) concerned the identification of evaluation models and the description of evaluation methods used in training at a distance in the European Union.

Two questionnaires were used as measurement tools by the Italian research group. The first questionnaire, Informative questionnaire, was used to make a preliminary census of distance education institutions in Italy and in other European Union countries .

The second questionnaire, Questionnaire on evaluation strategies in distance learning courses, was used to survey the evaluation strategies and testing methods used in distance teaching courses. Specifically the aim of the second questionnaire is to explore how the different institutions deal with the problem of evaluation in order to sketch a comparative picture. It has two sections: the first section collects general information on the educational programmes available, while the second section collects specific information on one of the courses.