Students’ Preferences in Online Assessment Process: Influences on Academic Performances

Abstract

In the constructivist approach, various self-assessment techniques are being developed to enable students to assess themselves in the learning process. The purpose of the study is to investigate relation between students' preferences in assessment process and students' performances. The study was conducted with 67 sophomore students enrolled in Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technologies at a State University. The study was carried out in "Measurement and Evaluation in Education" course. At the beginning, Moodle LMS was used to define the preferences of students about their own assessment criteria (discussion, quiz, assignment and viewing of course content). Throughout the process, students were received the course instructional package in the classroom. Then they were asked to fill the assessment activities on the LMS. Students' actual performances in online activities in terms of their preference about assessment criteria was calculated as students course achievement scores. The mean value of the scores and the standard deviation were guided us to divide the participants into three groups (unsuccessful, moderately successful, successful) considering their means and standard deviations. Then, the preferences of students and their academic achievements were associated in each group. As a result, various criteria were come to front in both successful and unsuccessful groups. Surprisingly, none of the students preferred viewing course content and participating in discussions as the highest assessment criterion. Besides, it was found that all the students in successful group preferred viewing course content as lowest assessment criterion. The results indicated that, there were no prominent criteria in the relations between the preferences of students about assessment process and the academic performances. However, most of the students in unsuccessful group performed better in assignment although they did not preferred the assignment as the highest assessment criterion. At the end of the study, we noticed that while considering the criterion in the assessment process, taking students' perspectives and preferences into consideration motivated students positively and had somehow related to their academic achievements. Thus, it is hoped that the study can provides an insight to future studies to enrich assessment activities with giving responsibilities to students in learning, especially in assessment process.

Online assessments: Exploring perspectives of university students

“…A study in Turkey considered students' perspectives on online assessments to gauge how it had an influence on their motivation (Cakiroglu et al 2017). As discovered in this study, our participants also felt most comfortable with online assignments and their lowest preference was for online quizzes.…”

What are students' needs and preferences for academic feedback in higher education? A systematic review

“…Most studies also used convenience sampling (Alamis, 2010, Agnello et al, 2011, Atmaca, 2016, Ball et al, 2009, Bourgault et al, 2013, Budge, 2011, Cakiroglu et al, 2017, Chung, 2015, Crews and Wilkinson, 2010, Race and Williams, 2018, Perera et al, 2008, Siow, 2015, Burns and Foo, 2014 and the majority did not disclose the relationship between the researcher and the study participants (Alamis, 2010, Agnello et al, 2011, Atmaca, 2016, Ball et al, 2009, Budge, 2011, Cakiroglu et al, 2017, Chung, 2015, Crews and Wilkinson, 2010, Douglas et al, 2016, Race and Williams, 2018, Perera et al, 2008, Shellenbarger et al, 2018, Burns and Foo, 2014.…”

“…Moreover, the findings of studies have limited generalisability as the participants in individual studies were recruited from one higher education institution (Alamis, 2010, Agnello et al, 2011, Atmaca, 2016, Ball et al, 2009, Bourgault et al, 2013, Budge, 2011, Cakiroglu et al, 2017, Carey et al, 2017, Chung, 2015, Chokwe, 2015b, Crews and Wilkinson, 2010, Douglas et al, 2016, Mirriahi and Alonzo, 2018, Parkes and Fletcher, 2017, Perera et al, 2008, Siow, 2015, Edeiken-Cooperman and Berenato, 2014 with small sample sizes (Race and Williams, 2018, Siow, 2015, Burns and Foo, 2014.…”

“…To date, there has been a relative paucity of research which has focussed on the needs and preferences of feedback from the students perspective (Agius andWilkinson, 2014, Carey et al, 2017). Generally, existing research is related to specific disciplines, such as nursing Journal Pre-proof J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f (Duers and Brown, 2009, Ball et al, 2009, Race and Williams, 2018, computing (Cakiroglu et al, 2017), and food sciences (Siow, 2015), etc., which raises the question regarding the applicability of these findings across the higher educational sector as a whole. It is therefore timely in contemporary education to take stock of the evidence in relation to meeting the needs and preferences of students for feedback that crosses over educational disciplines.…”

A Proposed Model for Peer Assessment in the Digital Age: Leveraging Social Media Platforms

“…Online learning management platforms provide diverse tools that can be used for assessing students. In [13] the authors have analyzed various approaches and student preferences in regard to what they deem are more appropriate for being assessed. According to this research, even though there are many areas of assessment (Quizzes, Course content views, discussions, assignments etc), most students still prefer to be assessed through quizzes and assignments.…”