# Challenges and Possibilities of ICT-Mediated Assessment in Virtual Teaching and Learning Processes
## 4 Discussion  
We can observe that the meaning of assessment has, on the one hand, a traditional approach, where evaluation is used to measure performance and to standardize the knowledge. However, on the other hand, there is an interest in new educative approaches inspired by ICT. Incorporating technological tools decentralizes the teacher's role in the assessment and creates other possibilities, such as peer-evaluation (see Table 3). There is also a migration from real-time to asynchronous assessments, where the hierarchical relationship of teacher and students is displaced (e.g., [52; 74]). In this sense, a question arises about the role of the teacher in the virtuality [25; 73]. The teacher becomes a digital content producer, requiring skills related to the management of digital tools and skills related with new literacies that allow taking advantage of these tools in the learning process (e.g., [43; 44; 59; 68]). We found studies where the evaluation moves away from its grading purpose and becomes a diagnostic instrument for customizing the learning process [36; 58; 87; 101; 102; 103; 104; 105]. Through the assessment, the teachers identify the strengths and needs of the students and define student profiles. Most researches were student-centered, focusing on the student role in their formative process. The perception studies show the importance of student engagement in their learning process and their relevance to teachers, digital tools, and learning contents [51; 52; 53; 54]. Despite the diversity of technological possibilities, commonly used LMS are limited to quantitative evaluation, being the multiple-choice questions the key players. Although some of these LMS incorporated analytical and quantitative options such as testing, matching questions, and embedded responses, these platforms promote the summative evaluation, limiting the feedback to a predefined sentence. Therefore, there are multiple but scattered digital tools, which allow enhancing learning from assessment. However, these tools are conditioned to the teacher's skills to use and incorporate them efficiently in the training processes. On the other hand, this review evidenced that the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields incorporate more frequently ICT-mediated assessment than other areas such as social sciences. Several authors highlight the gap of ICT-integration on social science education ([125; 99]). Questions that involve mathematical calculations and analysis are easier to implement in LMS than questions that assess a student's critical thinking. Here, teacher training in both pedagogical and technological issues plays a fundamental role. However, other tools are being introduced for ICT-mediated evaluation for a broad spectrum of knowledge areas. Although not yet embedded in LMS, these tools include gamification [56; 70; 100], augmented reality [43; 50], social networks [54] and mobile platforms [79; 94; 15; 99; 97; 52; 71; 57; 53; 75; 71; 89; 99] offering more flexible options for the development of qualitative assessments that truly evaluate critical thinking and skill development. Concerning the assessment possibilities, the ICT platforms provide new scenarios for interaction and knowledge construction, appealing to multiple senses: sound, visual and narrative. Incorporating other senses requires several skills that transgress the written culture present in the traditional evaluation paradigm. ICT allows asynchrony, promoting reflections about their meaning: what is being evaluated, what for, and how [95]. Paradoxically, the traditional evaluative practices are more closely with commonly used LMS. However, the opening of other forms of reading and writing, the asynchronous experience, and the reconfiguration of the learning spaces invite us to consider other assessment forms that transcend the informative level and give rise to critical analysis, argumentation, and the reflexive appropriation of knowledge.