Assessing online language learning in the European Higher Education Area

Abstract

The increased use of online technologies and Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) in foreign language classrooms has led teachers to broaden the focus of learning to include intercultural understanding, the skills of intercultural interaction, as well as electronic literacy. However, while the development of e-literacy and intercultural communicative competence may be seen an inevitable outcomes of many of the activities of online foreign language learning, it is still debatable how these competencies should be formally assessed by foreign language educators. This paper looks at approaches to the assessment of competencies in the European Higher Education Area and discusses how online foreign language learning at university level can be assessed within this new framework of learning.