Students' Perceptions of E-Assessment at Saudi Electronic University.

This study explored students’ perceptions of E-assessment at Saudi Electronic University. The university recently implemented this mode of assessment in the learning management system it uses. Therefore it is importance to examine the students’ perceptions of this mode at the university level. The results were encouraging. Students had positive perceptions of e-assessment and valued its features such as immediate feedback and unbiased grading. INTRODUCTION Assessment is a core element in the educational system to obtain information about the extent the learning outcome has reached. Valid and reliable assessment improves the quality of learning, teaching and academic programs (Dermo, 2009, Rastgoo, Namvar, & Iran, 2010) and is important for learners, teachers, and educational institutions. Students need to know whether they are approaching the goals set up for them. Confirming students’ knowledge is the educational organization’s task (Rowe, 2004), which cannot be done without assessment which validates that the students have learned. Students learn better when they know the learning objectives and the criteria used to measure achievement of these objectives. Educators, too, need to know whether they are using appropriate teaching methods and approaches. One goal of assessment is to direct the instructor to the students’ needs to improve the learning process (Rocco, 2007). Institutions need to provide evidence that they are doing what they are supposed to do. Not only students and their parents but other parties in society, such as benefactors, educational policy makers, and companies that offer jobs to graduates of these institutions, want to see this evidence. “If an institution claims to provide a service, they must prove to society that they do by some assessment mechanism” (Rowe, 2004, p. 2). With increasing interest in e-learning and e-assessment, with more institutions providing it and more students taking it, consideration should be given to students’ opinions about e-assessment. Without knowing their opinions, it hard to offer e-assessment which will be a primary mode of assessment at Saudi Electronic University. E-assessment in this study refers to the use of technology to assess students’ learning. LITERATURE Student Role in E-assessment Although the practice of assessment is different in online and face-to-face environments, “the principles of assessment do not change in an online environment” (Benson, 2003, p. 71). Ronles and Braathen (2002) described the change that occurs when moving to online learning: In the online environment, the student is responsible for his or her learning. He or she, for example, is required to read, understand, ask, answer, discuss, and explore the learning materials provided by the instructor. The instructor, as Ronles and Braathen stated, facilitates all these activities, and encourages communication and interaction among students and aids students in engaging with the technology. Chat rooms and email should compensate for the absence of a warm body providing the guidance that keeps students from getting lost in the online world (Ronles & Braathen). Liang and Creasy (2004) stated that the assessment methods used in an online environment should reflect the nature of the online learning that gives the learner more responsibility for his or her learning. It should be designed in a way that allows students to demonstrate their capability in solving real-life problems, and should reflect aspects that have changed from traditional teaching, such as self-directed learner (or learner autonomy), teacher as facilitator of learning, and writing communication. Through the traditional assessment lens, on the other hand, the learner as the recipient of knowledge and learning is assessed by measuring recall of facts and comprehension skills (Robles & Braathen, 2002) which does not allow the higher levels to take place. Haken (2006) stated that assessing students’ knowledge is important but not TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology – January 2017, volume 16 issue 1 Copyright © The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology 148 sufficient. The students’ ability to transform learning from memorizing facts to a wide model that reveals the academic programs outcome is more important (Buzzetto-More & Alade, 2006). The constructivism approach adopted by educators enables students to produce their learning. This approach can be applied where some of the assessment responsibility is taken from the teacher and given to the learners (McLoughlin & Luca, 2001). Thus, learners become responsible not only for building their knowledge and learning but also for assessing that learning by being involved in the assessment activities and receiving feedback. The e-assessment supports such an approach that is appropriate for this generation of learners who want to participate in making the decisions of their learning experience (Prensky, 2005). Students’ perception of assessment has also changed and they now see assessment as part of their learning, which can be practiced by themselves or their peers (Rastgoo et al., 2010). Educator Role in E-assessment In order to achieve a meaningful assessment, educators should predetermine the purpose of the assessment, its desired outcome and the criteria to be measured (Gaytan & McEwen, 2007). Informing the students about the objective of the course helps them to learn better. Educators also should modify their teaching methods in order to provide assessments that match the level of desired goals (Liang & Creasy, 2004). Online educators should adopt assessment methods that allow their students to demonstrate achievement of the course objectives (Ronles & Braathen, 2002). Because teaching methods changed when the institution moved to an online environment, different assessment methods should be adopted as well (Liang & Creasy. 2004). Instructors are now changing their perceptions and perceived projects, weekly assignments, self-assessment, portfolios, timed quizzes, and discussion boards as effective assessment methods (Gaytan & McEwen, 2007). Advantages of E-assessment The use of e-assessment brought many advantages for students, educators and educational institutions. For example, e-assessment allows for evaluating important life-skills, for improving the reliability of scoring and accordingly improving the quality of the test itself, and helps to avoid the drawbacks of the traditional paperbased assessment system such as the time required for grading (Ridgway, McCusker & Pead, 2004). Eassessment also motivates students to participate, giving feedback to a large number of students, saving marking time (Dermo, 2009), provides high quality data for teachers and administrators (Hoover, 2007), as well as reducing the printing cost (Rastgoo et al., 2010). E-assessment increases objectivity in grading because the computer grades the exams regardless of students’ names, race, culture, etc. (Ozden, Erturk & Sanli, 2004). For students, e-assessment’s advantages are: It is flexible in terms of time and place and provides immediate feedback (Hoover, 2007) which fosters self-assessment for students (Sorensen, 2013). E-assessment enables personalized evaluation, is low cost, motivates students to learn, encourages skills practicing (Ozden et al., 2004), and provides students with a chance to participate in problem-solving that promotes deep learning ( Sorensen, 2013) E-assessment aggregates students’ scores, enabling educators to see their students’ learning progress and facilitating immediately available management of data (Hamilton & Shoen, 2005). Disadvantages of E-assessment Despite its many advantages, e-assessment has some disadvantages that might hinder its use. For example, eassessment is time-consuming in terms of preparing tests, requires technology, and lacks control of tests (Rastgoo et al., 2010). E-assessments give the instructors less control over the exam setting, which makes cheating easier for students. Rowe (2004), in his exploratory study to reveal problems of dishonesty in online exams, discussed the three most serious problems in online assessment. First, students can have answers to the exam prior to taking it. As it is hard to ensure that all students are taking the exam at the same time, so students who take the exam first can give other students the questions. The second problem that Rowe (2004) mentioned was that students can retake the assessment many times, giving them time to review the questions and respond correctly. Rowe discussed different ways that students can manipulate their instructors into providing them with another chance to take the exam such as crashing the server or breaking the power, then claiming that they lost their answers. Students might even change the system clock to tricking the system into treating them as new exam takers. The third problem discussed by Rowe (2004) was illegal help during the exam, such as exchanging emails or hiring someone else to take the exam. As Rowe stated, students know computers better than their teachers do so it is easy for them to use computers for cheating. Therefore, security should be a concern for instructors in eassessment. Perrin and Mayhew (2000) for example, found that the assessment items were printed and shared TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology – January 2017, volume 16 issue 1 Copyright © The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology 149 among students. Restrictions on assessment, such as blocking students from viewing the questions after submitting the answers or limiting the time to ensure that all students are taking the test at the same time, will restrict the effectiveness of the test as an assessment tool (Ronles & Braathen, 2002). Some literature suggests that online instructors have the option of combining e-exams with traditional exams to avoid the problem of dishonesty in e-assessment. Rowe (2004) criticized this c