Open Versus Closed Forms of Knowledge Assessment in a Blended Learning Ecosystem

The article investigates whether two opposite assessment methods, open wiki (online text-and-media collaboration) and closed multiple-choice test, can together assure a balanced addressing of the learner both as an information processor and a social entity. Comparing students' experience and satisfaction with collective knowledge construction in a moderated wiki on the one hand and knowledge testing in an online multiple choice test on the other hand, the research differentiates full-time and part-time students of a blended course. This is presented upon broader data on comparable students' populations who were assessed with open-ended oral exam questions, regular homework tasks and seminar work papers. An updated notion of media ecology conceives knowledge testing and instructional feedback as parts of an informational ecosystem: only a coherent yet internally differentiated learning environment can accurately define significant educational trends and recommendations - such that question assessment methods and signpost the development of education towards sustainability.