الاختبارات الالکترونية في التعليم عن بعد ما لها وما عليها

The world witnesses scientific and technological revolution in the age of information accumulation and continuous change. Knowledge growth influences various aspects of life. Education has been demanding the search for new learning methods and models to face many challenges, with which traditional methods cannot keep up, such as the increased demand for education, the shortage of educational institutions, the increased information in all knowledge fields, and the need to take advantage of technological developments in education and training, as well. All these challenges led to the appearance of distance education model that helps learners to learn according to their speed and potential abilities, without being bound by place or time, by relying on the media technology in transferring the scientific content and skills. The educational institutions have to adopt new assessment tools and methods suits the distance education requirements, which the traditional assessment methods cannot achieve. Electronic tests are considered new assessment tool, and one of the main aspects of computer technology use in distance education, and refer to the many forms of computer use in the field tests and standards. These tests enable us to measure the abilities in a way were not possible by the traditional tests , and its use becomes a necessity when test requires control on time, stimuli, and dynamic presentation, plus keeping the test standardization on  providing test instructions and conditions in the same way for all learners. Therefore, the current paper addresses the use of electronic tests in distance education: pros and cons.