Hypermedia provide ideal macrocontexts. For example, in Immigrant, a database of census information about Irish immigrants in the 1800s, students can map where individual families lived, consider their lifestyles from knowledge of their occupations and goods of the day, and write letters to surviving generations, as historians would do. Mathematics also becomes a means to solve real-world problems. Assessment in this model becomes a further means for students to learn. Indeed, to distinguish learning activities from assessment activities in these classrooms is often difficult.
Assessment is dynamic, interactive, ongoing, and informal.
Often, groups who have worked together are assessed together. Students also learn to assess themselves as part of their role of self-regulation. Portfolios are used to collect students' work. They may include student projects, learning journals, a record of interviews with teachers, and student essays. Culminating projects, performances, and exhibits serve both learning and assessment functions.