Skill Assessment in Virtual Learning Environments

For Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) to reach their potential as a mainstream educational technology through employing experiential activities, they need assessment rubrics that are easy to execute and measure. This paper presents a study that investigates the use of automatically collected metrics in a 3D VLE along with metrics related to the learning process derived from established assessment criteria for higher order skills such as critical thinking, communication, and collaboration. Our study results provide supporting evidence that learning process metrics collected from a 3D VLE can be used for assessing higher order skills to compliments instructor's understanding of student's skills levels and to provide the necessary support during the learning process.