This book addresses the need to diversify mainstream forms of assessment currently used in Higher Education in order to re-establish the focus on the learning process. Making assessment central to student learning is about returning to what current research emphasises: the primary beneficiary of assessment should be the student. To achieve this in the assessment context, students and tutors must engage in a process of dialogue and feedback. It seems to be widely accepted that assessment succeeds when the learner monitors, identifies and then is able to 'bridge' the gap between current learning achievements and agreed goals. It is, however, more questionable whether adequate opportunities are given to students to be active participants in closing what has been termed 'the loop'. Contributors to this book have responded in different ways to the challenge of enhancing learning through assessment, offering reasons for the lack of focus on learning within assessment processes as well as suggesting possible solutions. The chapters demonstrate a balance between innovation and practicality, drawing on the underpinning theories. The result is both rich in discussion and an extremely useful resource for practitioners. This book was originally published as a special issue of Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education.

Electronic information about the individual is derived from what we say about ourselves, shaped by commentary from others and extended through electronic exchanges with both human and computer based intelligent agents.Digital Identity and Social Media will examine the impact of social media and distributed social spaces on our contemporary understandings of digital identity. This book will benefit researchers, practitioners, the wider educational community across all sectors, educational technologists, and individuals who are interested in how social media and emerging technologies will impact formal education and the social implications that surround the reformulation and fluidity of virtual communities. In addition, professionals and researchers working in the field of information and communication technologies and knowledge management in various disciplines will find this title to be an invaluable resource.

The rise of social software and the proliferation of social networking tools represents a relatively recent cultural phenomenon. The attitudes and behaviors of virtual communities and social groups goes beyond the distributed technological platforms being deployed and requires new conceptualizations and understandings of communities and their corresponding ontologies. ""The Handbook of Research on Social Software and Developing Community Ontologies"" examines the impact of new technologies and explores how social software and developing community ontologies are challenging the way we operate in a connected, distributed, and increasingly performative space. Through authoritative contributions by a vast group of international experts in this subject area, this book provides important new insights into where new social technologies and emergent behaviors are leading us.

This book addresses the need to diversify mainstream forms of assessment currently used in Higher Education in order to re-establish the focus on the learning process. Making assessment central to student learning is about returning to what current research emphasises: the primary beneficiary of assessment should be the student. To achieve this in the assessment context, students and tutors must engage in a process of dialogue and feedback. It seems to be widely accepted that assessment succeeds when the learner monitors, identifies and then is able to bridge the gap between current learning achievements and agreed goals. It is, however, more questionable whether adequate opportunities are given to students to be active participants in closing what has been termed the loop .

Contributors to this book have responded in different ways to the challenge of enhancing learning through assessment, offering reasons for the lack of focus on learning within assessment processes as well as suggesting possible solutions. The chapters demonstrate a balance between innovation and practicality, drawing on the underpinning theories. The result is both rich in discussion and an extremely useful resource for practitioners.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education.