Reconsidering ESP Assessment Against the Background of Online Learning

Online learning has placed the educational process not behind a screen but in front of a mirror that has challenged its face-to-face practices and has led to major changes not only as regards the design of the teaching materials, but also as regards the strategies employed in the assessment activities. Online environment has marked a shift within the educational process by establishing the need to focus more on a formative assessment, rather than on the summative one. As part of this continuous assessment the teacher has to provide effective and knowledge-yielding learning input, he/she needs to constantly guide the learners in the learning process, to identify methods to keep them motivated, to constantly provide feedback on their progress, to create opportunities for them to get involved, and finally, to turn them from passive recipients confined behind a screen into active creators of knowledge.