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During the COVID-19 restrictions, the administration of psychodiagnostic tools not through direct interaction with the psychologist, but administered electronically and/or with artificial agents, opened a new challenge. A change of setting and interactive conditions are introduced which can alter the reliability and validity of tools consolidated for diagnostic use in face-to-face assessments. A sample of 122 licensed psychologists participated in the study. They were either attending or teaching post-graduate specialization courses of different theoretical-methodological focus. The participants were given an online survey via Google forms that included a questionnaire composed of 21 items on a 5-point scale, built according to the UTAUT model and adapted for the acceptability and willingness to use online questionnaires for mental well-being, and a semantic differential for evaluating the attitude towards technology in general. The overall attitude of the psychologists toward the innovative modalities of assessment is positive, and the intention to use online testing is very high. The predictors of the positive attitude and intention of use are analyzed. A multidimensional analysis suggested that the attitude towards online testing, and the intention to use it, are located in the crossing dimensions of technical (psychometric) aspects and concrete usability. The administration of tests electronically or through artificial agents requires adaptation studies and in many cases a reformulation of the tools that are offered using these modalities. The need to raise awareness amongst psychologists about the new forms of assessment, and to train those who intend to use them, has be underlined. © 2023, Giunti Psychometrics. All rights reserved.
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The present study is related to the problem associated with student assessment with online examinations at higher educational institutes (HEIs). With the current COVID-19 outbreak, the majority of educational institutes are conducting online examinations to assess their students, where there would always be a chance that the students go for malpractice. It is difficult to set a question paper for any technical course with great novelty. Under these circumstances, safeguarding academic integrity has become a challenge for HEIs. This study is aimed at improving the quality of questions for online exams to increase the accountability of HEIs by proper evaluation of their students. A detailed procedure with suggestions for setting the questions for technical courses, in the format of assertion and reason, matching, multiple select types, etc., has been discussed with adequate examples. It deals with a strategy for ensuring that all the students are held to the standards that are reflected in their grades. The proposed evaluation method has been implemented on a test batch and presented the results along with a comparison with that of traditional question papers. It is witnessed that there is a simultaneous enhancement of students'learning as an additional benefit of implementing the proposed learning-oriented assessment method. IEEE
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Assessing students' online learning is a vital constituent of the effective teaching-learning process in a virtual mode. This study addressed teachers' preparedness, challenges and effective practices for students' assessment in online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Online assessment at times of uncertainty has become arduous for university teachers as it is not in practice in Indian higher educational institutions (HEIs). This research reports a study of the Adamas University, teachers drawn-out through semi-structured interviews of individual teachers. The researchers employed a case study research method to attain the objectives of the study using thematic analysis for the qualitative data. Thirty-one faculty members were selected as a sample of the study. The study findings indicated that the University teachers used multiple online assessment techniques, some common, some extremely unique, viz. blogs and peer tutorial videos. The preparedness or readiness varied considerably as some were instead sceptical, whereas some were amusingly non-challant. The study found that teachers faced many problems while assessing students' performance during online classes, which were not just tech-based, but also due to their distressed state of mind.
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As the COVID-19 pandemic motivated a shift to virtual teaching, exams have increasingly moved online too. Detecting cheating through collusion is not easy when tech-savvy students take online exams at home and on their own devices. Such online at-home exams may tempt students to collude and share materials and answers. However, online exams' digital output also enables computer-aided detection of collusion patterns. This paper presents two simple data-driven techniques to analyze exam event logs and essay-form answers. Based on examples from exams in social sciences, we show that such analyses can reveal patterns of student collusion. We suggest using these patterns to quantify the degree of collusion. Finally, we summarize a set of lessons learned about designing and analyzing online exams. Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s).
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BACKGROUND: The implementation of person-centred, need-oriented and flexible care for people with substance-related problems is often insufficient, in large part due to the complexity of addiction support services among different providers. A standardized online assessment and subsequent sector-independent treatment coordination could provide individuals with more appropriate services, thereby making better use of individual services and leading to a more effective addiction support system as a whole. The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of sector-independent treatment coordination following an online assessment, in comparison with the current standard of care and treatment process in Germany. METHODS: The sample size of this randomized, controlled trial has been set to a total of 400 participants with substance-related problems. Participants living in Stuttgart, Germany, will be randomly allocated to (1) the intervention group with immediate online assessment and subsequent sector-independent treatment coordination (ASSIST) or (2) the waitlist group. Participants in the waitlist group will initially remain in usual care and only be provided with the online assessment 6 months later. Short-term effects (over 2 months) and medium-term effects (over 6 months) of ASSIST will be compared between the intervention and the waitlist groups. The primary outcome is improved treatment satisfaction. Secondary outcomes include improved subjective quality of life and empowerment, reductions in patients' substance use, unmet needs and illness-related clinical and social impairment. Health economic evaluation as well as quantitative and qualitative process evaluations will be conducted. DISCUSSION: The results of this study are expected to provide information on whether sector-independent treatment coordination following an online assessment contributes to improved health care service provision for people with substance-related problems. This randomized controlled trial will help identify facilitators and barriers to the sustainable implementation of a cross-sectoral care concept in substance abuse services. TRIAL REGISTRATION: German Clinical Trial Register DRKS00026996 . Registered on 29 October 2021.
Subject(s)
Quality of Life , Substance-Related Disorders , Cost-Benefit Analysis , Germany , Humans , Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic , Substance-Related Disorders/diagnosis , Substance-Related Disorders/therapyABSTRACT
This chapter considers the experience of Undergraduate Laws assessments in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic forced summative assessment to move from invigilated face-to-face pen-and-paper examinations in local examination centres around the world to online delivery. The first section provides, first, by way of context, a brief overview of the University of London and Undergraduate Laws (UG Laws) explaining how this distance and flexible learning program is delivered to around 16,000 students and providing a cameo of the very diverse student body. It then describes and reflects on the alternative assessments in 2020 outlining the attempt to replicate online the face-to-face invigilated examinations using ‘record and review' software and considers why the absence of one resource for learning—the teacher—adversely impacted this endeavor. In the second section it explores how the resources for learning for many UG Laws students converge in ‘the teacher'. It considers how distance learning materials created around the learner and an outcomes-based model of learning can be layered not only by additional support established in the outcomes-based model but also in a teacher-centered paradigm of learning. It suggests that the pandemic has revealed a fissure created by misalignment between these two models of learning and that ‘the teacher' many students had looked to for direction in the past was diminished in the melee of the pandemic. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.
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The spring of COVID-19 forced teachers to restructure learning materials, content delivery, and learning environment, this leading to utilizing innovative course designs, high-tech learning tools, and engaging web-based learning environments. This shift affects, on the one hand, the perceptions of teachers and learners, and on the other hand, instructional practices, resulting in learned lessons and future envisions about the feasibility of utilizing the web in the context of English language education. In this introductory chapter, we present the background of this special collection on online English language teaching and learning, provide a summary of the expanding corpus of research on online English language education, and introduce the studies published in the collection. This collection of chapters covers the perspectives, implications, challenges, and opportunities of digital transformation in English language education prompted by the increasing accessibility of technology and the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Background & Objective: During this COVID-19 pandemic a large number of institutes have undertaken an online assessment of medical students such as zoom meets, online objective structured clinical examination [OSCE] google forms, etc. The present study was undertaken to determine the perceptions and opinions of teachers towards online assessment so as to plan the future strategy regarding the assessment system. Materials & Methods: An online questionnaire was validated and distributed among 120 teaching faculty of a tertiary care hospital in North India and informed consent was obtained. It consisted of standard Likert scale questions which comprised 22 questions. The questionnaire was grouped into 4 categories: demographics, Comparison between traditional and online assessment, Advantages and limitations, different teaching methods, and acceptance of online assessment. The responses were collected and analyzed by using descriptive analyses. Results: The mean age was 41.25 ± 9.35 out of which the majority were females (55%). Most teachers found online exams less stressful, within the COVID norms, and more comfortable. The main limitation was no interaction between the patients & students followed by poor internet connection. 70.30% of the teaching faculty prefers traditional face-to-face assessment to online assessment, 23.40% select the blended mode, and only 6.30% of teachers prefer online assessment. Conclusion: The results from our study depicted that 70% of the teaching faculty prefer traditional assessment. The responses provided us with the viewpoint of the medical institute's teaching faculty, which will help us improve the logistic of the assessment program. © 2021, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences and Health Services.
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Background: The sudden growth in online instruction due to COVID-19 restrictions has given renewed urgency to questions about remote learning that have remained unresolved. Web-based assessment software provides instructors an array of options for varying testing parameters, but the pedagogical impacts of some of these variations has yet to be examined. Objectives: The current study examines whether question order affects student performance on online college math assessments. Drawing on the literature of testing and math anxiety, we hypothesized that difficult questions near the beginning of an assessment would have a destructive effect on student confidence, which would in turn have a deleterious effect on their performance. Methods: We employed an observational ‘big data' methodology, analysing 23,468 final exams completed by students in 10 different courses over eight semesters at a Math Emporium in a large technical university in the eastern United States. Students were freshmen and sophomores enrolled in non-engineering math courses. We regressed the final score on the difficulty level of the first and second questions, controlling for several other factors. Results and Conclusions: We found that several factors—day of the week, amount of time before the deadline, number of minutes spent on the exam—have more of an impact on score than question order. This pattern was consistent across sexes. Takeaways: Our findings contradict some previous studies, which have found that difficult early questions degrade student performance, and that this affect is more pronounced in females. This work enriches our understanding of how students respond to online assessment. © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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The purpose of this study was to investigate the key factors affecting the adoption and use of online assessment in Polytechnics in Zimbabwe during the COVID-19 era using the Technology-Organisation-Environment (TOE) framework and Technology Acceptance model (TAM). A qualitative research methodology was employed to discover and explain the adoption factors of online assessment for learning based on the participants' experiences. Data were collected from lecturers and students from Harare Polytechnic using semi-structured interviews. Total of 10 students and five lecturers were purposively selected from five Departments. The factors affecting the adoption and use of online assessment were coded using Template analysis and classified based on the theoretical lens of the integration of the TOE framework and TAM. The study reveals that the adoption and use of online assessment in Polytechnics depend on technological factors (internet access, computing devices, and ICT infrastructure), organisational factors (institutional support), environmental factors (academic integrity), and individual factors (digital skills and user perceptions). This study concludes that online assessment is no longer a choice for tertiary education institutions since COVID-19 has presented a mandatory environment for its adoption. As far as theoretical contributions of this study are concerned, the study extends the TOE framework by explaining how the individual factors, for instance, the digital skills and user perceptions influence the successful adoption of technology in mandatory environments such as online assessment during COVID-19. In terms of practical contributions, the extended TOE framework can be used as a valuable point of reference for scaling up the adoption and use of online assessment in Polytechnics. The study recommends that both lecturers and students should be trained on the usage of an online assessment. © 2023 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.
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The proliferation of ICT in today's world of work particularly in education has necessitated the need to assess lecturers' views of online assessment use in the covid-19 era given the disruptions in face-to-face teaching and learning process. The study adopted a mixed research design. The population for the study was 84 computer educators made up of 40 males and 44 females from the four public tertiary institutions in Enugu State, Nigeria. Three research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The instruments used for data collection were a structured questionnaire titled "Computer Educators' Perception of Use of Online Assessment” (CEPUOA) and a guided interview relating to the research questions. The internal consistency was determined using the Cronbach α reliability test which gave an index of.9. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation while the null hypotheses were tested using a t-test at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study indicated that computer educators have a positive disposition toward the use of online assessment in conducting various assessment techniques such as tests/quizzes, semester examinations, and seminar/project evaluations. The findings of the study further showed that the utilization of online assessment techniques facilitates timely monitoring of students' progress, and the provision of immediate feedback to the learners helps in preparing students with digital skills required to function in the 21st-century workplace, among others. In view of these, it was recommended that tertiary institutions should initiate workable policies that will encourage the effective use of online assessment by lecturers. © 2023 Wiley Periodicals LLC.
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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.
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This research considers the synchronous creation of a faculty meta-ensemble emergent in the pivot to online music ensembles in 2021. The unit of study outline for Music Ensemble Performance mandates live ensembles in a Kolb-inspired experiential learning model, seemingly impossible to achieve in a pandemic. Eric Ries advocates for necessary change in strategy, where required, without a change in vision. This was also mandated by the published unit of study outline, which limited change possibilities. In this auto-ethnographic case study, faculty created their own co-teaching meta-ensemble to model collaborative musical behaviours. Keller and Appel (2010) note the importance of live embodiment of collaborative music making for sound synchronicity through shared gestures. It was initially unclear how this could be achieved through exclusive online learning. A necessary course pivot during the pandemic showed 1. Ensemble music making is a unique complex adaptive culture, also possible to create in an online environment;and 2. Faculty can model behaviours and structures that are able to mirror ensemble course outcomes. Instructional designers can also embody the courses they teach. This has implications for other teaching and learning contexts. Practitioner Notes 1. It is possible to deliver meaningful musical ensemble content online, including ensemble concepts of musical citizenry, positive peer dynamics and collaborative embodiment and gesture. 2. Existing faculty skill sets can be leveraged through a co-teaching approach which uses pedagogical models designed to promote reflective practice and innovation. 3. A range of technologies which promote a mix of synchronous and asynchronous communication and collaboration, as well as specialist software deployed through the Learning Management System are necessary for optimal student experience in an online environment. 4. This study has implications for other teaching contexts where experiential learning is used, if faculty are willing to mirror experiential outcomes within their own student-facing practice. 5. When students are given space to co-create curriculum with faculty, they become pioneers creating a shared memory, creatively working with the limitations and affordances of technology, to expand the definition and possibilities of music ensembles (live, hybrid and asynchronous) in their own creative practice. © 2023, University of Wollongong. All rights reserved.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has forced institutions worldwide to accelerate their practices on digital transformation, especially in the use of Online Learning. The rapid pace of this transition has forced instructors also to adapt quickly to the online instructional design and in turn reduced opportunities of systematic action research within such a setting. In this paper, we present the action research study by an online instructor to tackle the problem of understanding conceptual gaps among learners. The instructor adapted an existing solution widely used in medical learning, called extended matching items, to design 'Extended Matching Question (EMQ)' for large scale online students (N=1525) of an introductory Statistics course. The instructor modified the structure of this assessment by allowing learners to first identify the concepts involved to solve a particular question and then use those concepts to reach the final numeric answer in the topic 'Permutations and Combinations'. Comparisons of this assessment were made with regular assessments (multiple choice or numerical answers) on the efficacy to make students apply their conceptual understanding for solving the problems. The analysis also enabled the instructor to identify the exact conceptual points where the students lag and showed strong association between identification of concepts and getting the final numeric answer correct. In addition, there was a significant increase in the average score of the test takers in the EMQ assessment compared to that of regular assessment. The study also presents pointers to universities involved in hybrid learning regarding the need for setting up research-practice partnerships within their institutions to tackle their own problems of practice. © 30th International Conference on Computers in Education Conference, ICCE 2022 - Proceedings.
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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. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Innovations in Education & Teaching International is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
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In this paper I discuss running an online examination with STACK for a year 1 "Introduction to Linear Algebra” course. The COVID pandemic has continued to disrupt teaching during 2021–22, and were are still not able to return to the examination hall for a traditional exam. Instead, our examinations were still "take home”. Under these circumstances we wrote a fully automatically marked final test for the course. With over 800 students on the course in 2021–22, the paper-based examination was estimated to cost about 50 person-days to mark. Clearly, reducing this cost is an attractive prospect. However, important questions remain. To what extent can we write questions which cover the learning objectives of the course? How did the students do with the test? What recommendations can we offer for similar courses, and future years? In particular, do we need to return to the exam hall? © 2023,International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning.All Rights Reserved.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has had vast effects on the concept of education as a whole. During the pandemic, students had no access to physical teaching practices, which had been adapted worldwide as the principal way of education since the 1800's. Due to the restrictions imposed to garner safety from the spread of the virus, this methodology had to be modified based on the situation at hand. Alternatives through the usage of Virtual Learning Platforms (VLP), Online Tutoring Platforms (OTP), Web Conferencing Platforms (WCP) and multiple assessment tools like plagiarism checker, poll sites, quiz platforms, online proctored examinations (OPE) started gaining popularity among all institutes to cope with the limitations levied. The technologies molded a path for student-teacher interaction, performance assessments, document sharing and online tutoring. This research highlights the lack of online tutoring equipment, educators' limited expertise with online learning, the knowledge gap, a inimical atmosphere for independent study, equity, and academic success in postsecondary learning. The goal of this review is to present an overview of available technologies for online teaching that can be used to improve the quality of education during COVID-19. © 2022 IEEE.
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BACKGROUND: The assessment system for standardized resident training is crucial for developing competent doctors. However, it is complex, making it difficult to manage. The COVID-19 pandemic has also aggravated the difficulty of assessment. We, therefore, integrated lean thinking with App-based e-training platform to improve the assessment process through Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC) cycles. This was designed to avoid unnecessary activities that generate waste. METHODS: Panels and online surveys were conducted in 2021-2022 to find the main issues that affect resident assessment and the root causes under the frame of waste. An online app was developed. Activities within the process were improved by brainstorming. Online surveys were used to improve the issues, satisfaction, and time spent on assessment using the app. RESULTS: A total of 290 clinical educators in 36 departments responded to the survey, and 153 clinical educators used the online app for assessment. Unplanned delay or cancellation was defined as the main issue. Eleven leading causes accounted for 87.5% of the issues. These were examiner time conflict, student time conflict, insufficient examiners, supervisor time conflict, grade statistics, insufficient exam assistants, reporting results, material archiving, unfamiliarity with the process, uncooperative patients, and feedback. The median rate of unplanned delay or cancellation was lower with use of the app (5% vs 0%, P < 0.001), and satisfaction increased (P < 0.001). The median time saved by the app across the whole assessment process was 60 (interquartile range 60-120) minutes. CONCLUSIONS: Lean thinking integrated with an App-based e-training platform could optimize the process of resident assessment. This could reduce waste and promote teaching and learning in medical education.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Mobile Applications , Humans , Pandemics , Learning , StudentsABSTRACT
The pandemic situation is contributing to the redesign of training models, promoting new scenarios, or readjusting other pedagogical resources already known, which help to deal with the uncertainty and doubts that have arisen. This context raises new requirements and solutions in the approach of the face-to-face, online and mixed model. Adaptation of spaces, compliance with prevention measures, interaction with students, methodologies and especially, an assessment system, which helps to keep track of the subject, so that a more active attitude of the student and their commitment to this process, are of great value. From the reflection on the achievement of objectives, follow-up of the subject, and the auto- and peer-assessment, an experience of formative assessment is presented in two environments, online and face-to-face. Both are supported by a process of self-assessment and peer-assessment, which has allowed students to successfully face the subject of Artistic Expression I, in the Degree in Engineering in Industrial Design and Product Development at the University of Zaragoza (Spain). © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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The study examines the impact of COVID-19 on the assessment process in the Thai context. It investigates the factors that undermined the reliability of online assessment during COVID-19. 196 lecturers voluntarily participated in questionnaires data collection, out of which 15 were conveniently selected for interviews. Descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis were utilised for data analysis. The findings revealed that COVID-19 affected the assessment process and increased the digital divide among the students. It urged cancelling and/or replacing the assessments with assignments. The findings also show that the reliability of online assessment was undermined by three factors namely students' and lecturers' digital illiteracy, the possibility of cheating, and the inefficiency of online assessment tools to assess students' different skills and competencies. The findings give the lecturers insights into the threats and possibilities for improving online assessment, as technology is still under-developed in the field of online assessment. Copyright © 2023 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.