Universities have made a compulsory shift to distance education due to the Covid-19 pandemic. All of the higher education instutitions in Turkey have completed 2019-2020 Spring semester using online tools. However, most of these institutions were not fully-prepared to have all of their courses online. Technical inadequencies, lack of qualified online tools, inexperience of instructors and students in distance education have emerged as major issues that instutitions have to face. In addition to all, a new question arised; which approaches will be used for assessment. This study aimed to seek the common assessment approaches used through pandemic, how students perceived the quality of the assessment and the pros and cons of using these practices. Additionally, we examined whether participants’ perceptions about quality of the assessment differ according to interaction with faculty members and use of online tests. Researchers employed survey design to reply four research questions and used a three-part instrument to collect qualitative and quantitative data. 486 students from 61 universities voluntarily participated in the study. Results indicated assignments are the mostly used tools and students are generally satisfied about the quality of the assessment practices. Another result is that students who interact with faculty members are more satisfied with the quality of the assessment practices. This emphasizes the importance of formative assessment and feedback in remote assessment. Further, students who took online tests are more satisfied with the quality of assessment. Suggestions were made for future research.
"Synchronous" distance learning environments are becoming prevalent with the rapid developments in information and communication technologies allowing participants to be actively engaged in collaborative learning activities at a distance. Innovative synchronous distance learning tools provide alternative, flexible, and rich learning opportunities, which could highly be consistent with the demands and needs of the 21st century learners. It is therefore crucial for teachers of today to develop a positive attitude toward this kind of learning environment and have an intention to use it in their work life. This study aimed at examining the attitudes of pre-service teachers toward distance education and their acceptance status of the technology supporting synchronous distance learning experience. After a four-week distance course offered by four instructors from different universities at a distance, the findings indicate that the participants developed positive attitudes toward distance education. Based on the results, we discuss the pre-service teachers who accepted this technology based on three factors: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and intention to use it again.
Remote assessment Take-home exam COVID-19Formative assessment E-assessment Online assessment COVID-19 has changed the way we teach. Today, we have become far more experienced in the delivery of distance education and use of online tools. However, the quality of distance education and learning outcomes have become a matter of ongoing debate. Just as higher education aims to develop high-level skills in its students, researchers are seeking ways to perform valid and reliable assessment in distance education. Institutions and educators are also in search of assessment tools that can help prevent instances of cheating and plagiarism. However, performance-based assessment tools may also offer options to measure both high-level skills and in limiting cheating behaviors. In this study, we used the take-home exam as a formative remote assessment tool as a local case in Turkey. We surveyed the views of 43 undergraduate students about the quality of takehome exams as a remote assessment tool. The results showed that participants had a high quality perception about the use of take-home exam, especially with regards to being kept informed about evaluation and scoring, rapid assessment, the provision of feedback, and consistency of scope between assessment and course content. Whereas students highly perceived the use of take-home exams, they reported more moderate views regarding take-home exams increasing the level of interaction with their peers. The results of this study suggest that the use of take-home exams is significantly preferred by higher education students, that it is a reliable and distinctive way to measure students' academic performance, and may increase student-teacher interaction through its formative use.
Günümüzde, mobil öğrenme giderek yaygınlaşmaktadır. Bireyin yaşı, kültürü, engeli, deneyimleri ne olursa olsun mobil ortamlardan faydalanabilmektedirler. Kullanıcı kitlesindeki çeşitlilik nedeniyle mobil uygulamaların tüm bireylerin kullanabileceği şekilde tasarlanması önemlidir. Evrensel tasarım; her türlü ürün ve süreci daha kapsayıcı kılmayı amaçlayan bir yaklaşımdır. Bu araştırmada, mobil öğrenme süreçlerinde evrensel tasarımının önemine dikkat çekmek amaçlanmıştır. Bu çerçevede, öğrenme için evrensel tasarım ilkeleri temel alınarak, üç boyut ve 45 maddeden oluşan bir kontrol listesi geliştirilmiştir. Tüm dünyada yaygın olarak kullanılan ve yabancı dil eğitimi sunan 26 mobil uygulama kontrol listesine göre incelenmiştir. Araştırma sonucunda uygulamaların, özellikle "içeriğin sunumu"nda yetersiz oldukları gözlenmiştir. Uygulamaların "kullanım ve etkileşim seçenekleri" ve "motivasyonu arttırma" boyutlarında ise orta yeterlikte oldukları gözlenmiştir. Sonuç olarak, dünya çapında kullanılan uygulamalarda dahi farklı özelliklerdeki bireylerin kullanımı açısından eksikliklerinin olduğu belirtilebilir. Bulgulardan yola çıkarak, mobil uygulamaların tasarımında evrensel tasarım ilkelerinde işaret edilen özel gereksinimli bireylerin de göz önünde bulundurulmasına gayret gösterilmesi önerilmektedir.
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