ABSTRACT
The Corona virus-19 pandemic has forced universities globally to shut down and shift their educational and assessment activities to online platforms. This study explores the perception of undergraduate preclinical medical students about online assessment during the ongoing pandemic. A cross-sectional study based on a semi-structured online self-administered questionnaire was conducted on 654 preclinical medical students following the final online exams at Faculty of Medicine for Girls, Al-Azhar University. Perception was investigated using a 3-point Likert scale. The overall mean score of students' satisfaction with the quality of online assessment was (31.7 ± 3.1), and they agreed that online exams create a sense of security. However, 69.7% of students preferred paper-based exams to online exams. Furthermore, high cost, lack of ability to concentrate and only knowledge-based exams were some of the reported drawbacks. These findings highlight the importance of students' perception through online assessment for promoting successful educational processes.