Evaluating continuous assessment quality in competence-based education online: the case of the e-folio

Universidade Aberta (UAb), being a distance teaching university, is particularly suited to tackle some of the recommendations concerning the assurance of accessibility to education expressed in the "Education and Training 2010" goals (European Commission, 2008a). Meanwhile, the University's strategic plan for 2006/2010 decided to implement a fully virtual innovative teaching and learning methodology. The pedagogical model (Pereira, Quintas-Mendes, Morgado, Amante & Bidarra, 2007) adopted by the University is "strongly dominated by the valuing of students' social and communal integration, personalized monitoring of their learning and the respect for the particular life experience of each student" (p.8). This pedagogical model, in use since 2007, is based on four cornerstones: 1) student-centered learning, 2) flexibility, 3) interaction and 4) digital inclusion, aligned with the key competences required for learners in this knowledge-based society (Directorate for Education, Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, 2002). According to the University pedagogical model (Pereira, 2007) "these principles guide the organization of instruction, planning, the design and management of activities for the students, the type of materials to develop and the nature of the assessment of competences" (p. 11, 12).