The introduction of elearning in Europe has been complex. Twentieth century theories of communication, cybernetics and delivery coexist with 'old Europe' ideas taken from Descartes, Kant and Marx and 'new Europe' ideas about the economic and political harmonisation of the European Community. In short, practitioners have to grapple with conflicting discourses about teaching and learning. Communication theory relates to the manipulation of meaning-free information, 'old Europe' theories build upon the relationship between mind, experience and meaning; and 'new Europe' is struggling to reconcile inherited behaviourist and cognitivist views of learning with constructivist assumptions about, among other things, distributed learning, communities of practice and situated learning. This symposium features an EU-funded development project. Partners in Sweden, Belgium and the United Kingdom are using the concept internetbased assessment to probe the tensions described above. The main feature of the new Europe is that assessment can be seen both as measurement of learning (in the audit society) and as support for learning (in the learning society). In the first case, knowledge is a commodity that can be sampled, scaled and measured. Further, such commodities, together with their manufacturing and delivery processes, can be marketed world-wide. Much less attention has been given, however, to assessment as support for learning. A different outlook is required, particularly if elearning is the appropriation of knowing as well as the acquisition of knowledge. Simple labels do not yet exist that capture this outlook on support for learning. It is still a discourse in the making. It utilises a bricolage of ideas from communications theory (e.g. feedback), cognitive theory (scaffolding) and activity theory (e.g. learning as a side-effect of doing). The three partners in the EU project share this 'in the making' outlook. They make different use of the conceptual inheritance of teaching and learning, and their practice is also mediated by their local circumstances. Umeå university is piloting commercial software that enables teachers to devise their own formative feedback for their students; Gent university language centre is embedding support for learning - in the form of self- assessment - into its language acquisition programme; and Sussex university is developing a distance education website that fosters formative, low-stakes dialogue between a group of part-time doctoral students and their tutors. The papers contribute to the evaluation and dissemination tasks of the project. They explore the circumstances described above by: (a) reviewing the practices followed by the partners, (b) identifying the ideas partners have used to foster discussion of support for learning and (c) clarifying the problems partners have faced in their efforts to reconcile the future of elearning with the past of etesting. Paper 1 High peaks and low valleys: confronting the examinations inheritance of a Swedish university Ulf Jonsson, Bertil Roos, Anders Steinvall, Umeå University The paper focuses on the introduction of examinations as 'support for learning' in the context of current changes in Swedish higher education. These changes can be summarised in terms of a shift from elite to mass education. In effect, Swedish higher education is in the same stage of development as the comprehensive school was in the 1960s. The paper is a formative evaluation of the first half of a three-year project that addresses these important changes in the form and function of higher education. It describes the strategies used, the problems encountered, and the successes achieved in a small-scale innovation. Although the project has not completed its work, the paper provides a sense of the processes that have been followed on the way to the 'products' required by the terms of the EU contract. As important, the also gives attention to lessons learned that might have wider relevance for the adoption of similar innovations elsewhere in Europe. Paper 2 'Statements of relevance': using self-assessment as a reflexive tool in support of teaching and learning Steven Van Tittleboom and Valère Meus, Gent University Gent university language centre has had more than a decade of developing computer-based courses for language students. Most recently, it has produced a 'shell' that is used in the construction of on-line language courses. This shell makes it possible for teachers to develop their own courses with the minimum of technical support. The shell also has an important secondary function in that it also is consciously designed according to constructivist principles of language learning. The performance of each students is monitored and supported in the light of their own interests as well as the course or tutors' interests. In short, the shell is designed not only to measure but also to assess (i.e. evaluate) student performance. This paper will report on a further development in the shell. To assist the assessment of students, reflexive elements (so-called 'statements of relevance') are included in the teaching framework. Students are encouraged to create their own learning record, and this reflexivity is also being extended through the creation of self-assessment exercises used in the initial recruitment and placement of students. Paper 3 Assessment as an invitation to learn: the creation of a website to foster formative, low-stakes dialogue between tutors and students Barbara Crossouard, Harry Torrance, John Pryor, Sussex University This paper reports on the development of an on-line conference system for part-time, mid-career students taking a doctoral degree in professional practice. The conference systems builds on a review of on-line teaching resources at Sussex university and a questionnaire circulated to staff. Although there is an interest in the potential of on-line learning, relatively little innovation has taken place in this area. The general atmosphere is 'wait and see'. Insofar is the EU project is a 'development' project, the Sussex partners have used evidence from the staff survey and elsewhere to develop their own action research in online learning. To this end, they are developing conference resources where distance students can identify, analyse and share their experiences as professional practitioners. Focusing on this pedagogic context of 'support for learning', the paper gives particular attention to the relationship between conversation as communication, dialogue as interaction and their joint impact upon feedback, formative assessment and intellectual scaffolding.