This work presents the results of a qualitative investigation supported by descriptions from an on-line collaborative specialization course with emphasis on the evaluation process of students' learning. The investigation showed that, as a result of the possibilities both information technology and communication technology create to people, the evaluation process can not be limited to the logic of a post-procedural and definitive examination, it should rather be applied all time long, in all ways and for all activities and practices in a course environment. This approach has a multidimensional nature and is able to handle with the complexity of the related knowledge, taking into account many possibilities of interaction, different timing and spaces to learn and teach, the related interfaces as well as interdisciplinary approaches in the analyzed collaborative environment. The theoretical references have explored the evaluation concepts and its predominant practice, and examine several aspects of information and communication technology which apply to the education. Based on these two main fronts, other concepts have been considered in the theoretical field such as complexity, collaboration, time, space, interdisciplinary aspects, among others, which have allowed the research to have its basis on a framework of ideas from which the analysis have been brought to light in order to show the broad scope of the multidimensional learning evaluation in on-line collaborative environment, considering that such evaluation allows to set individual goals of students and teachers according to a pedagogical strategy that dialectically focuses the autonomy and the collective construction of knowledge. Another important point demonstrated in this investigation is that people are much more important than technologies, and that the collaboration between people is also important for an assessment of all moments, even considering the history of each participant as an individual who has a personal history and knowledge gathered from multiple sources and being continuously processed.
Evaluation; Distance education; Teaching and learning; Collaboration; On-line courses; Multidimensional evaluation
