Exploring on-time automated assessment in a co-located collaborative system

This research explores the effects of providing on-time automated assessment in a co-located collaborative system for Entity-Relationship design. In addition, students' perceptions about the validity and usefulness of this automated assessment, and its potential for reflection were analyzed. Thirty undergraduate students from computer science participated in the study, a quasi-experimental pre-post test design was conducted. Short quizzes for measuring students' learning performance were used and the perceptions of students were gathered by means of questionnaires. Results showed that on-time assessment positively affected students' learning performance in the study. Finally, students perceived that the system assessment is valid and useful and has the potential to generate mechanisms for reflecting about individual learning and group performance. The study concludes with steps for further research.