Reliability of Digital Formative Assessment Practices and Instruments: Theoretical Review Towards an Assessment Proposal

The rise of enthusiasts in Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL), benefiting from well-established benefits of consuming audiovisual content for autonomous learning has risen during the last decade. Simultaneously, there is constant debate about how reliable digital evaluation systems are, and therefore, what are the best instruments/practices to assess language learning remotely. After contextualizing the motivation for this research, this chapter will provide a rundown of state of the art related to digital learning assessment, with a particular focus on online formative assessment practices and adaptive learning systems, as well as contexts they were implemented. The purpose is to identify valid practices, pinpointing strengths and weaknesses and ending with an assessment instrument proposal for an Online Collaborative Platform (OCP), in which learners – either autonomously, or supported by their EFL teachers – follow steps to get certification in a given communicative skill, by the consuming, mapping, producing and uploading audiovisual content.