A model of online learning

A danger of assessment-centered learning systems is the potential increase in the workload demanded of busy online learning teachers. Strategies that are designed to provide formative and summative assessment with minimal direct impact on teacher workload are urgently needed. There is a growing list of tools that provide such assessment without increased teacher participation, including:

• the use of online computer-marked assessments that extend beyond quizzes to simulation exercises, virtual labs, and other automated assessments of active student learning;
• collaborative learning environments that students create to document and assess their own learning in virtual groups;
• mechanisms, such as online automated tutors, that support and scaffold students’ evaluation of their own work and that of their peers;
• student agents who facilitate and monitor peer activities to allow students to assess and aid each other informally;
• the use of sophisticated software tools, such as latent semantic analysis (LSA) or neural networks, to machine-score even complicated materials, such as students’ essays.

Thus, the challenge of online learning is to provide high quantity and quality of assessment while maintaining student interest and commitment. These goals are often best achieved through the development of a learning community...

Terry Anderson, Toward A Theory Of Online Learning

Sounds like Son of Small Worlds :-)
Stay tuned.