The pass/fail grading system at Jordanian universities for online learning courses from students’ perspectives

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the perspectives of Jordanian university students toward the pass/fail grading system (PFGS) that was used during the COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve this goal, a questionnaire was prepared, consisting of 37 items in its final form; divided into four subscales: advantages, drawbacks of (PFGS), the reasons for its use by students, and their attitudes toward it. This questionnaire was applied to a sample of 6,404 male and female students from four Jordanian universities: Al al-Bayt University, Balqa Applied University, The Hashemite University, and The University of Jordan. Out of the 6,404 responses, we rejected 263 responses due to careless survey filling and/or incomplete answers. The results revealed that most students were satisfied with applying the PFGS to all courses, especially among the freshmen. They believed that the PFGS was the best choice for grading due to online exams and full distance learning lectures. The results showed significant differences at α = 0.05 in how students evaluated the PFGS; namely: its advantages, drawbacks, reasons, and their attitudes toward it, based on participants’ gender, school, and academic level. As for the relationship between GPA and students’ perspectives on the PFGS, it was clear that the correlation coefficients indicated weak but significant correlations.