COVID‐19 as the tipping point for integrating e‐assessment in higher education practices

Abstract

The COVID‐19 pandemic provoked an urgency for many educators to integrate digital information and communication technologies in their educational practices. We explored how faculty members tackled the task of adapting their assessment practices during the pandemic to identify what is required to sustain and favour future quality development and implementation of e‐assessment in higher education. Employing a qualitative descriptive approach, we conducted semi‐structured interviews with thirty‐one individuals six months into the COVID‐19 pandemic. We identified four major themes in participants' discourse about the integration of e‐assessment during the COVID‐19 pandemic: (a) the considerations they had for the potential consequences on students and how they considered this while deciding how to move forward, (b) the preoccupations for the potential for cheating, (c) the importance of pedagogical alignment, and (d) the affordances available to them. While the COVID‐19 pandemic highlighted the fact that higher education institutions were not prepared for a pivot to‐ or greater integration of‐ e‐assessment, it also provided the tipping‐point to do so. In other words, it offered an unprecedented opportunity to critically appraise and change assessment practices, this opportunity was also a very challenging balancing act of considering the social consequences of assessment, and the alignment within set affordances. Practitioner notes What is already known about this topic The advantages of e‐assessment include the opportunity for rapid‐, even immediate‐, feedback. The integration of digital information and communication technologies to assessment practices is a source of stress and anxiety for some students. The move towards e‐assessment increases faculty members' workload. What this paper adds How cheating, anxiety and workload were considered in the context of a forced and rushed change to e‐assessment because of the COVID‐19 pandemic. The COVID‐19 pandemic offered an opportunity to faculty members to take a critical look at their assessment practices and increase their alignment with learning outcomes. Faculty members considered the consequences of their decisions on students when making changes to their assessment. Implications for practice and/or policy Moving to e‐assessment is an opportunity to align the assessment practice with students' future professional practice, or in other words it is an opportunity to increase the authenticity of the assessment. A better integration of information and communication technology to assessment practices will require to provide educators with skills, time, evidence‐informed recommendations, and institutional support among others.

Assessment of English Foreign Language Learners: MOOC Material Resume and Review of Online Professional English Network (OPEN)

“…Providing a valid test during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic is certainly not easy. It has offered an unprecedented opportunity to critically appraise and change assessment practices (St-Onge et al, 2021). In response to this, the author, as an English teacher, see the need to upgrade her knowledge.…”

Eleven ways to get a grip on the implementation of remote administration of high-stakes assessments

“…Given the usual distress associated with high stakes assessment, it is important to consider how to avoid the technology becoming a burden so big that candidates' true knowledge, skills and attitudes cannot be captured with the assessment. Providing practice opportunities for candidates, examiners and standardized patients to familiarize themselves with the technology can help to reduce the anxiety, 15,16 and favors a smoother administration because everyone involved knows the process and the technology. 17 It seems that just being exposed to the platform reduces the anxiety of all users (examinees, examiners and standardized patients).…”

Exploring Teacher’s Perspectives about Online Assessment during the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Saudi Context

“…For example, teachers can use higher-order thinking skills questions or certain programmes like Turnitin to control cheating (Bakerson et al, 2015). Other online assessment problems are associated with students' anxieties and increasing workload on faculty members, especially in the phases of development and implementation as St-Onge et al, (2022) suggest and they maintain 'The implementation of e-assessment in HE is fraught with challenges, which might explain why HE institutions have shied away from integrating technology to their assessment practices(p. 351).…”