Keywords

1 Introduction

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The outbreak of the Corona pandemic in late 2019 has a wide-ranging impact on many aspects of economic, social, and educational life. As a result, countries acted fast to address the pandemic and limit its spread, imposing a total ban and comprehensive closures, as well as preventive and precautionary measures and social distance. All educational institutions at all levels were affected by these closures. According to a UNESCO Institute for Statistical Data report released in June 2020, school closures affect more than 60% of students worldwide. School closures affect 67.6% of students registered in the 144 nations that have implemented the closure policy [8]. This forced educational authorities to take the required crisis-response measures, such as switching to online learning to assure the continuation of the educational process during the crisis.

Similarly, all Jordanian higher education institutions have shifted to distance learning, relying on e-learning and assessment platforms and windows via e-learning management systems such as the Moodle system, which was introduced to education and assessment before the start of the pandemic in most Jordanian universities. This made it easier for universities to transfer to complete e-learning and assessment considering the comprehensive closures. In addition to using communication applications and software such as Teams and Zoom, for use in online learning. The process of integrating learning management systems into instruction and e-assessment witnessed a natural development and a tendency to benefit from technological development in improving the educational process and improving learning outcomes. This transformation is an urgent necessity for the future of education in universities [10]. However, most Jordanian universities have implemented e-learning management systems in the instruction and assessment process and provided the infrastructure to utilize these systems. E-learning management systems provide opportunities to develop learner knowledge and skills through interactive social and cultural contexts, enabling the learner to build his knowledge within the framework of interaction through learning groups, and motivating him to integrate, participate and collaborative learning via the Internet [6]. It also enables e-learning management systems within an integrated system to manage courses and implement learning activities synchronously and asynchronously. In addition to managing classwork and exams of various substantive and essay styles electronically, tracking students’ performance, verifying assignments, and monitoring grades [13].

Teachers perform two types of assessment practices, assessment in traditional classroom situations or through E-media, through which they perform their roles in the classroom assessment. The formative assessment seeks to obtain information about the student's performance to improve his learning and to provide him with effective feedback on his performance on an ongoing basis to reflect positively on his learning and motivation. This is done using formative exams, projects, reports, assignments, business files, and others. The final assessment is done through conducting final exams through which it measures the objectives and levels expected to be achieved by students in the course at the end of the semester and taking the appropriate academic decision for each student based on the student’s cumulative achievement during the semester [3]. Several studies have been undertaken to review institutions’ experiences with the learning management system before the epidemic, as well as students’ perceptions regarding online assessment [1, 10, 13, 14, 18]. These studies found that the system was effective and of high quality in terms of instruction, assessment, training, developing digital learning skills, digital competence, satisfaction, motivation, and favorable attitudes toward using the system. Studies regarding e-learning challenges found that these challenges include technical, financial, and administrative challenges, in addition to e-learning assessment challenges, especially the challenges of managing online exams, safe digital assessment, scientific honesty, and academic integrity [16].

Despite previous experiences with the e-learning management system, its effectiveness in instruction and related practices, and positive trends in the instruction process, educators were able to use the system in managing course content, classwork of assignments and projects, and short tests in conjunction with face-to-face instruction in classrooms. However, the complete and unexpected shift from face-to-face instruction in the classroom to remote e-learning and assessment during the Corona pandemic presented public education institutions and universities with significant challenges related to instruction and assessment alike, especially in the preliminary stages of the pandemic. UNESCO's June 2020 report alluded to emergency responses in many countries throughout the world. Where fateful decisions on national examinations were made. Eleven nations decided to cancel national exams, while 22 countries them on schedule, including several Arab countries, including Jordan, and took some essential measures to keep national exams on schedule, while some countries tried to postpone exams [19]. The challenge was the continuation of online learning and the implementation of course-related activities, such as preparing and administering exams electronically from a distance, and what they require in terms of technical equipment and a sufficient frequency band, as well as the procedures and requirements for controlling online exams and maintaining academic integrity, as well as digital equality [17].

Universities responded to these emergencies by enacting a series of decisions that encompassed a variety of procedures, adjustments, and alternatives to ensure the continuity of the educational and assessment processes. The National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment conducted a survey of the attitudes of 813 faculty members, administrators, academic affairs, and students from 624 institutions and organizations in the United States of America, Canada, India, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Algeria using an online questionnaire focused on changes made to instruction and assessment during Spring 2020 in response to the sudden shift to online learning and assessment and examining the potential impacts of these changes on assessment culture, and fears of these changes [9]. It was found that 97% of respondents made changes of some kind in response to the Corona pandemic during the spring of 2020, including changes in assignments and assessments such as switching to a successful-failed system, giving students the freedom to consider grades for courses, and flexibility in the assessment process and deadlines for assessments, reducing the number of assessment requirements, and mooting [9]. It also revealed that 75% of respondents were unconcerned about the influence of changes on the assessment system, while 25% were concerned about increasing job expectations, assessments changing, the transformation from teaching and learning, and the accuracy of learning measures [9]. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the American Psychological Association has also provided ten guidelines for instruction, assessing, and following up on students. Some focused on setting realistic and specific goals for each lesson, explaining how learning will be assessed, asking questions, using continuous assessment throughout the semester, providing students with feedback on how learning has improved, using previous assessments to improve subsequent assessment procedures, and providing students with support and guidance [2].

Several studies on the realities of online learning and assessment have been undertaken. Daniels et al. [7] in Western Canada found that COVID-19 had a greater influence on students' motivation, involvement, and perceptions of cheating and success in online learning settings than in traditional education settings compared to distance learning environments. The results revealed a significant fall in achievement goals and empathy, as well as an increase in concerns about cheating. Students who were interested in cheating were more concerned about cheating in remote learning environments, and their perceptions of test failure were higher. Besides, learning goals predicted behavioral, cognitive, and emotional engagement. Gamage et al. [8] conducted a critical study on online delivery and assessment during COVID-19. The study focused on several issues and challenges associated with online assessment practices such as challenges in maintaining academic integrity, protecting the assessment process from hacking (secure assessment), and confirming the students' identity. The results indicated that formative assessments are minimal risk because they do not directly contribute to the final grade, compared to the high-risk summative assessments. The reasons for students’ tendency toward academic lying, academic dishonesty, plagiarism, research purchase contracts, and fraud are due to the intensity of duties and competition among students, the lack of time available to complete the duties, the tuition fees, the financial and social consequences for the student, and the students’ lack of awareness and knowledge of plagiarism. Reedy et al. [17] also conducted a study on students' and teachers' perceptions of cheating behavior in online exams, during the Corona pandemic, by comparing the methods and procedures followed by three universities in the Australian community. The results suggested the ease of cheating in online exams from the teachers' perspective compared to the difficulty of cheating in virtual environments from the students' point of view. The results also revealed that students' values ​​and beliefs strongly contribute to reducing the possibility of cheating, regardless of the ease or difficulty of the exams. The study recommended reading the instructions for academic integrity before students enter the tests and design assessments that let students use open sources. It also requires cooperation and group interaction between students, designing effective questions based on thinking and mental treatments, and employing information instead of remembering questions that prompt students to search for the answer from available sources. In Palestine, Ayyoub and Jabali study [5] aimed at assessing the practices and methods of online assessment during the Corona pandemic from the perspective of Al-Najah University students. The results showed that the degree of students' estimation of online assessment practices was medium, and there were no differences in the degree of estimation of assessment practices according to the student's gender, academic level, and cumulative average.

A year and a half have passed since using distance education and assessment, and the Corona pandemic continues to cast a shadow over all countries, forcing them to devise solutions that ensure students’ gradual return to face-to-face education while maintaining preventive measures to ensure students’ safe return, while the educational process continues. At the higher education level, the Jordanian Ministry of Higher Education has issued a system of “integrating e-learning in higher education institutions,” so that universities are committed to this system to continue e-education at a distance in 10–20% of the program's courses in full distance education, 40–60% of the program's courses in blended teaching, and 20–30% of the program’s courses are in face-to-face learning [11]. Thus, we are facing a full distance learning and online assessment experience that lasted at least a year and a half before returning to face-to-face, blended, and remote education. This experience requires an assessment to find out the reality of online assessment and its challenges from the perspective of the parties to the educational process. Therefore, this study seeks to achieve this purpose by studying the reality of online assessment practices in higher education institutions from the students’ point of view.

1.1 Statement of Problem

Universities have shifted from traditional instructional strategies to online instruction and assessment in response to the emergency caused by the Corona epidemic. The e-learning assessment techniques and practices changed to assure the assessment process’s reliability, integrity, and fairness under objective settings, as well as its continuous efficacy in reaching learning objectives and making solid academic decisions. This approach encountered difficulties that hampered the implementation of various processes, particularly those for regulating and monitoring distant online examinations and assessments. This study seeks to identify the most significant procedures used by universities to control online exams, evaluate the diversity of online assessment forms and practices, assess the quality of online assessment practices, and identify the most significant challenges of e-learning assessment, which is what the study seeks to answer by attempting to answer the following study questions.

  1. 1.

    What are the procedures for controlling online exams in Jordanian higher education institutions?

  2. 2.

    What is the extent of diversity and adaptation of e-learning assessment tools and forms in Jordanian higher education institutions?

  3. 3.

    What is the quality level of e-learning assessment practices in Jordanian higher education institutions?

  4. 4.

    What are the challenges of assessing e-learning in Jordanian higher education institutions?

1.2 Importance of Study

Students had real-world experience with online learning and assessment, in terms of the tangible changes that occurred in the assessment process such as its diversity, quality, implementation procedures, as well as its challenges. Therefore, it was necessary to survey the opinions of that segment to which the total changes occurred. On the other hand, it has been at least a year and a half since the transition to online learning and assessment, which is a sufficient period to reveal the reality of online assessment, its effectiveness, quality, diversity, objectivity, and the creation of an appropriate virtual environment for it.

2 Material and Methods

2.1 Sample

A total of (352) male and female students from Al-Balqa Applied University and the International Islamic Sciences University in Jordan participated in the study, and they were randomly selected. Their data and responses were obtained by an electronic questionnaire through a link shared with student groups via Teams technology, and the Learning Management System, in 12 scientific and humanities departments from the two universities. Responses were also reviewed, and 40 biased and inappropriate questionnaires were excluded. The actual sample counted (312). Table 1 shows the distribution of participants by gender and university (see Table 1).

Table 1 Distribution of participants by gender and university variables
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2.2 Study Instrument

To reveal the reality of online learning assessment practices during the Corona pandemic, a questionnaire was developed after reviewing the related theoretical literature, and the instruments used in recent studies such as [5,6,7, 13, 15]. The measure included 56 items, covering four sub-dimensions: the procedures for controlling online exams (18) items, the diversity of forms, tools, and practices of online assessment (12) items, the quality of exams and online assessment practices (11) phrases, and the challenges and problems of evaluating e-learning (15) items. A five-point scale was utilized to estimate the degree of the practice of e-learning assessment from the students’ perspective, including the following levels: very high (5) degrees, high (4) degrees, medium (3) degrees, (2) low degree, and (1) a very low degree. The validity of the questionnaire was verified by presenting it to a specialized committee to check the appropriateness of the items to the fields, their relevance, clarity, and linguistic formulation. The required modifications were made based on the committees’ suggestions. The construct validity was also verified after applying it electronically to 142 male and female students, by calculating the correlation coefficients between the items and their fields, and between the fields. The correlations between the items and their field ranged as follows: The first field (0.28–0.78), the second field (0.29–0.74), the third field (0.27–0.66), and the fourth field (0.57–0.79). Where the correlations of the measure's fields ranged between (0.24–0.55). The correlations of the first three fields with the fourth field (challenges and problems of online assessment) were negative. Reliability was verified by Cronbach's alpha method. The internal consistency coefficients for the four fields ranged between (0.72–0.89), and these indicators are acceptable for the study.

2.3 Statistical Analysis

Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted to verify the psychometric properties of the measure using correlation coefficients including frequencies, percentages, and means. The t-test for independent samples was applied to answer the study questions.

3 Results and Discussion

Results of the first question

“What are the procedures for controlling remote online exams in Jordanian higher education institutions?” The study questionnaire includes 18 statements centered on the procedures and practices of controlling online examinations and assessments, which represented the students’ assessments of the procedures and practices of the academic administration and faculty members in controlling and monitoring online exams and assessments, as shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Descriptive analysis of the field distance exam control
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The student's evaluation of the experimental virtual environment control procedures came to a medium degree. The most practiced procedures for controlling online exams were “The start and end of the exam is activated for all students at the same time.” 80% of the students agreed to a “high and very high” degree. 57% choose “very high and high” degree to “The examinee is given a secret number after verifying his identity.”, and “Increase the capacity of the question bank to ensure that the most distinct question forms are randomly generated.” Whereas 50–55% of them choose “high and very high” degree to “Opening features of any other programs during the exam application such as Word, pdf, Excel is prevented.”, “prevent copying and pasting operations during the test”, and “prevent the use of headphones during the exam”. “Very significantly and significantly” about 48% of the students agreed to “Asking fresh unsolved questions” and “The exam instructions emphasize academic integrity which must be considered during the exam.” As for the procedures for controlling less-practiced online exams, the results were as follows: 83% of the students agreed with a degree of “low and very low” on “Throughout the exam, students must keep the camera open”, where 54–57% of the students selected “low and very low”. On “Students must submit copies of their manual answer drafts electronically,” and “the online exam has the feature to return to the questions that have been answered by reviewing the recorded answers to modify them.”

Results of the second question

What is the extent of diversity and adaptation of e-learning assessment tools and forms in Jordanian higher education institutions? The extent of the diversity of forms and practices of online assessment was measured from the students’ perspective, through 12 statements, as shown in Table 3.

Table 3 Descriptive analysis of the diversity of online assessment forms and practices
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The results in Table 3 demonstrate that the degree of diversity of online assessment forms and practices is medium. 73% of the students' responses were “very high” and “high” to the statement which reads “The online exam questions were only of the multiple-choice variety.” 68% of the students chose “high and very high” in response to the statement “Quizzes, assignments, and projects were used in class.” While 55–57% of the students chose “high and very high” over the statement “Observing indicators of students' simultaneous attendance at lectures”, and “Asking assessment questions linked to the class goals at regular intervals during the lecture.” Regarding the less diverse practices, 54% of the students chose “low and very low” on the statement “The online exams included both objective and essay problems”, and 43% on “Written work was the center of online exams and assessments.”

Results of the third question

What is the quality level of e-learning assessment practices in Jordanian higher education institutions? The quality of online exams and assessments was measured from the viewpoint of the student through 11 phrases, as shown in Table 4.

Table 4 Descriptive analysis of the quality of online assessment practice
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The results in Table 4 reveal that the “quality of online assessment practices” was rated to a medium degree. Furthermore, 62–63% of students agreed to a “very high and high” degree that “online exams offer questions of gradual complexity” and that “exam questions cover the course contents”. 56.4% of students agreed with a “high and very high” degree on “the sufficiency of the number of questions for the course topics,” and between 44 and 47% agreed with a “high and very high” degree on “The computerized assessments contained questions requiring higher mental functions, such as analysis and conclusion, criticism, and originality.” “The exam questions ranged from knowledge to competencies.”, “The quantity of online exams questions is small in comparison to the weight of marks,” and, “to some extent, the difficulty of getting a mark compared to the work put in the study.” While 51.2% of the students agreed with a “low or very low” degree on “obtaining high marks in online tests in return for little study effort”.

Results of the fourth question

What are the challenges of assessing e-learning in Jordanian higher education institutions? Students’ opinions were surveyed about the challenges and problems of online assessment, through 15 items, as shown in Table 5.

Table 5 Descriptive analysis of “online assessment challenges and problems”
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The results in Table 5 demonstrate that the most challenging of online assessments from the students’ perspective was “The high level of anxiety among students for fear of technical malfunction during the test” by 65.8%, “Lack of financial support for students to purchase computers” by 63.1%, “The university does not provide free internet packages for students during exams” by nearly 60%, “Poor internet coverage in remote areas” by 58%, “The difficulty of achieving justice in online exams” by 54.4%, “interruption or weakness of the network” Internet interruption or weakness during the test” by nearly 53%, “Part of the test time was lost because of the online overload on the test system,” by 52%, and “the difficulty of providing students with feedback and answering students’ inquiries during the test,” by 51%.

The findings revealed that the students’ attitudes about online assessment practices were medium degree, in terms of procedures for controlling the virtual environment of online exams by the available technical means to achieve the safe digital assessment, and the extent of the diversity of forms and practices of online assessment to ensure the diversity of tools and forms of online assessment between traditional assessment such as objective and essay tests or alternative evaluation such as assignments, projects, peer assessment and self-assessment, quality of online tests and assessments in terms of comprehensiveness and adequacy of exam questions for all course topics, variety of mental processes involved in questions based on Bloom's Classification of Cognitive Objectives, order of questions in order of difficulty, and logical sequence. Based on the students’ views, the procedures for controlling the most commonly used virtual environment can be classified into two types: The first is a set of procedures for controlling the characteristics of the exam and the conditions of its application, which was represented by activating the start and end of the test for all students at the same time, and allocating sufficient time for the test so that there is no excess time, and expanding the scope of the bank questions to generate the greatest amount of alternative question models possible. We note that these measures were implemented to prevent or reduce the chances of cheating to achieve a safe digital assessment in which all students enter the test at a specific time and allocate enough time for the test to cause them to be busy answering questions rather than searching for answers from other students. One of the changes the university made to the mid-term and final online exams was to reduce the testing time from 30 to 50 min to 2 h, which indicates the flexibility that is in response to evaluation requirements in exceptional emergency circumstances, and it is one of the characteristics of the tests across. This interpretation is consistent with the result of the National Institute for the Evaluation of Learning Outcomes study [9].

The second type is a set of technical procedures used by universities with available technical means to set the virtual environment for online exams, which included verifying the student's identity through an entry code for the exam, preventing earphones, preventing copying, and pasting during the exam, preventing any other program from being opened during the exam, and preventing screenshots. In terms of the variety of online assessment practices and forms, the formative assessment practices (classwork), whether they be short tests, self-assessments, homework, or projects, have emerged as the most diverse. Those practices are simple for the instructor to apply throughout the semester, as well as flexibility in availability and delivery times. In contrast to summative evaluation processes, which were uniform. Most students supported a little diversity in their practices, and those practices were limited to objective tests, in contrast to the diversity of their practices prior to the pandemic, where the study of [4] found that the degree of practicing the style of essay tests in the final assessment is higher than the objective tests. This is due to the official nature of the final exams, time constraints and availability at a specific time for all students, and the ease and speed of correcting objective exams electronically through the learning management system, as well as saving time and effort, and the student's ability to answer many objective questions electronically in a brief period, compared to questions on paper. The article demands a long time to answer a few questions, as well as the simplicity of predicting the proper number of questions for the pre-set test time from the university administration. In addition to the instructions of academic departments in universities about final exams, which focused on preparing question banks and categorizing them according to the gradation in difficulty, and topics The course, setting a brief time—less than an hour—for the final online exam, and increasing the risks of final exams compared to low-risk formative exams. This result is consistent with the result of the study [8], as the final assessment tests constitute a great weight in the final mark in the course, which is achieved in one assessment session, which increases the risk of hacking and attempts to cheat by students. All these factors prompted teachers in one way or another to use objective type tests, specifically the multiple-choice questions.

In this context, we may claim that there has been a fundamental transformation in the culture of assessment, with the objective questions becoming the dominant culture in the final assessment and with the approval of academic departments in universities. The concern here is whether the assessment with a pattern of objective questions is sufficient to determine the amount to which the student has gained information and skills and the attainment of learning goals considering the ongoing Corona epidemic. Will this shift in assessment culture be sustained by the continued use of blended education, which combines e-learning and face-to-face instruction? Will online assessment retain this flexibility in the future as a natural reaction to technological advancement through a learning management system in instruction and assessment when the epidemic is over? Particularly, some institutions focused on computerizing the final examinations for the requirements of combined university courses and conducting the final exams for the remainder of the online courses through the screens of computer laboratories on campus. In terms of the quality of online assessment practices, students' evaluations focused on aspects related to the detailed analysis of achievement test results, such as analyzing the difficulty of the questions and their discriminatory ability, as well as the effectiveness of alternatives, even though these practices are typically used in standardized achievement tests [12]. And they contradict the findings of the current study, which found that students appreciated the gradation of test questions in terms of difficulty, the degree of mental processes needed by the questions, and the coverage and adequacy of the number of questions for the course themes. This finding can be viewed in two ways. In the first instance, it is the teacher's response to the university's academic administration's directions and instructions by creating a bank of questions for each course, dividing it according to the level of difficulty and course topics, based on the elements of the specification table, and then randomly selecting a sample that represents the final exam via the learning management system Moodle.

Concerning the challenges of online assessment, they were technical, technical-administrative, and financial, and their resolution necessitates increasing bandwidth, providing the technical infrastructure, and overcoming the problems that universities encountered during the online assessment. These issues posed a significant difficulty for colleges, particularly during the start of the epidemic and the move to online learning. The time factor was critical for the continued use of online learning and assessment, the achievement of test justice, the right of students to equal opportunities to learn and test in safe virtual environments, and the reduction of feelings of anxiety and fear caused by technical problems, particularly technical support and Internet speed, especially for students in remote areas far from the Internet coverage.

4 Conclusions and Recommendations

Based on the theoretical background of the study and its results, we conclude the following:

  1. 1.

    A shift in evaluation culture, with assessment being more flexible than before.

  2. 2.

    Technology and learning management systems have helped to boost the digital efficiency of both the student and the instructor, allowing the teacher to manage, prepare, and administer the online exam, as well as read the outputs of the test results analysis.

  3. 3.

    Universities use two types of processes to govern the virtual environment of the tests: control of the test characteristics and application settings, and technical procedures.

  4. 4.

    Improving the abilities and culture of question bank construction, as well as the quality and features of objective exam items.

  5. 5.

    Diversification of online formative assessment procedures (classwork) and dependence on the multiple-choice approach in final assessment (final examinations).

The study recommends educating students about academic integrity, research ethics, citing and documenting during lectures, and discovering available sources for use during testing. In addition to using essay-style questions in final exams with objectivity, asking practical questions that require higher mental treatments, and using assessment practices without exams during the semester that require interaction and cooperation between students in the completion of student projects. The study recommends focusing on test quality features to avoid cheating and transfer efforts rather than technological control measures for the virtual environment of the exams, attaining technical fairness, and protecting students’ rights to safe access.