E-assessment during COVID-19 pandemic at a Saudi university: impact on assessment methods and course learning outcomes

Abstract

Abstract The deployment of e-assessments has been so frequent in educational institutions worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is worth questioning the efficacy of this newly adopted evaluation method. The study aims to determine how far this testing effectively achieves the Course Learning Outcomes. It also tries to explore the extent of difference between the online assessment method from the pre-pandemic testing methods stated in the course specification. Another aim of the study is to check the acceptance of e-tests by the learners. This study employs a quantitative approach encompassing a Likert-type online questionnaire to gather the response of 70 faculty members at the university in Saudi Arabia. The primary result of this study is that e-assessment succeeds in attaining Course Learning Outcomes to a great extent. Though these newly adopted tests shifted away from the stated measurement methods in the course specification, the learners accepted them enthusiastically. It was discovered in the study that if educational institutes have well-structured e-learning infrastructures and regularly use these setups competently, they confront minor complexities to switching to online ones and achieve Course Learning Outcomes applying e-assessment systems.