This document discusses online assessment challenges and opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic. It begins by looking at how universities have dealt with conducting exams during lockdowns. It then examines the challenges schools and colleges face in operating efficiently and safely. Various types of assessments are discussed, including formative and summative. Challenges of online assessment include how to provide timely results while condensing content. Opportunities of technology include improved engagement and providing feedback. Open book exams are outlined as focusing on higher-order skills like analysis rather than memorization. Both restricted and unrestricted types are described.

1. ONLINE ASSESSMENT DURING COVID19
PANDEMIC PERIOD:
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
DR.
VMS

2. COVID19 IMPACTS
Investigations are going on into how universities all
over the world have dealt with the COVID-19
pandemic and how they are currently preparing for
the semester exams.
Researches are very important in order to support
higher education institutions to overcome the
lockdown, which is expected to continue in 2021.

3. COVID19 IMPACTS
Schools and colleges face enormous
challenges regarding how to operate
efficiently and safely for the current
academic year.
Presently the Government permits the
educational institutions to conduct only
online examinations.

4. Teaching
Testing
Learning

5. TESTING, ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION

6. Testing
Testing is an important phenomenon from science to arts, in
order to weigh, measure and qualify the validity and the
quantum of things.
In order to find out the nature and state of the students
proficiency, tests are to be conducted and the results are the
only source, which provide valuable ideas, and suggestions.
The most common use of language tests is to pinpoint
strengths and weakness in the learnt abilities of the students.

7. TESTING PROCESS

8. ASSESSMENT
Encyclopedic Dictionary of Language Testing, Mousavi
(2009, p. 36) defined assessment as “appraising or
estimating the level or magnitude of some attribute of a
person.”
Classroom assessment, Mihai (2010) categorized it
according to intention, purpose, interpretation, and
administration.
In regard to intention, an assessment can be informal when
it is a spontaneous comment, or it can be formal when it
is carried out in a systematic manner.
In terms of purpose, an assessment can be formative if it
focuses on the process of learning or it can be
summative when it is used to measure student learning
outcomes at the end of an education cycle.

9. TYPES OF ASSESSMENT
Formative assessment occurs throughout a class or
course, and seeks to improve student achievement of
learning objectives through approaches that can
support specific student needs (Theal and Franklin,
2010, p. 151).
Summative assessments evaluate student learning,
knowledge, proficiency, or success at the conclusion
of an instructional period, like a unit, course, or
program.

10. ASSESSMENT NEED
According to Airasian (1994) and Pellegrino, Chudowsky and
Glaser (2001), assessment has three main purposes:
• to assist learning
• to measure a particular student’s achievement and
• to evaluate the whole program
So that, without good assessment techniques it is difficult to
ascertain whether reforms in instruction and curriculum
are working.
The suitable assessment is one that can be used or leads to
improvement in student’s learning. Moreover, it can reveal
the student’s weakness and strength areas; the strength
area to be enhanced and the weakness area to be treated.

11. OFFLINE VS. ONLINE ASSESSMENT
Sl. No.
Offline Exams Online Exams
1. The assessment is done by pen and
paper or OMR(optical mark reading),
done in a computer lab without Internet
access, but there is a local network
available.
A powerful online exams or e-testing system is
100% secure. It runs with a safe exam browser
that locks examiners’ screens to show only the
exam on the operating system used.
2. A long and tiring process of conducting
and evaluating the exams.
A User can access the test with a unique id and
password, irrespective of location.
3. Cost of ink from printing and the cost of
paper
No cost of paper, pen, ink, manpower in
evaluating the paper, etc. It becomes easier for
institutes to conduct weekly, monthly, online
exams and measure the class performance,
student performance in each subject/course
“checkout the Examination Software Price”
4. There is a slight difference in timing for
each candidate while collecting answer
sheets
Online exam software controls the whole exam
process from conducting exams to the
evaluation process. It brings efficiency to the
exam process. The probability of errors in the
evaluation and results is very less
5. Less security As compared to traditional pen and paper
based exam, security is far better in every

12. CHALLENGES
 How can the assessment be condensed in content and
length and still provide useful results?
 How can assessment results be provided in a timely
manner?
 How can the assessment be administered under different
scenarios, including at home, at school, or virtually at an
off-site location?
 How can the schools and colleges be supported in using
high-quality curricula that are aligned to various
standards and assessments?

13. ONLINE ASSESSMENT CHALLENGES
Various studies reported considerable amount of barriers
that affect online assessment. Multiple challenges have
been emerging. The shift from a physical classroom to a
virtual class has changed traditional techniques and
assessment methods.
E- Assessment has been a challenging process in the
sense that it required using a frame work that should be
valid and reliable.
Multiple challenges have been encountered by instructors
questioning the consequences of the shift from face to
face learning to full-time e learning (Yadov, Gupta, &
Khetrapal, 2018).

14. USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN ASSESSMENT
• Greater variety and authenticity in the design of
assessments
• Improved learner engagement, for example through
interactive formative assessments with adaptive
feedback
• Choice in the timing and location
• Capture of wider skills and attributes not easily assessed
by other means, for example through simulations, e-
portfolios and interactive games
• Efficient submission, marking, moderation and data
storage processes

15. USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN ASSESSMENT
• Consistent, accurate results with opportunities to
combine human and computer marking
• Immediate feedback
• Increased opportunities for learners to act on feedback,
for example by reflection in e-portfolios
• Innovative approaches based around use of creative
media and online peer and self- assessment
• Accurate, timely and accessible evidence on the
effectiveness of curriculum design and delivery

16. ONLINE CLASS ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES
Three-step process – Plan / Implement / Respond
• Plan: what is to be learnt from a classroom assessment.
• Implement: explain the purpose of the activity to
students, then conduct it.
• Respond: review the results and decide what changes, if
any, to make. Share information with students.

17. BLOOM’S TAXONOMY (1956)
The Three Domains of Learning:
1. Cognitive: mental skills (knowledge)
2. Affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas
(attitude or self)
3. Psychomotor: manual or physical skills (skills)
Instructional designers, trainers, and educators often
refer to these three categories as KSA

18. COGNITIVE DOMAIN
The cognitive domain involves knowledge and the
development of intellectual skills.
This includes the recall or recognition of specific facts,
procedural patterns, and concepts that serve in the
development of intellectual abilities and skills. There
are six major categories of cognitive processes,
starting from the simplest to the most complex

19. COGNITIVE DOMAIN
KNOWLEDGE
“involves the recall of specifics and universals, the recall
of methods and processes, or the recall of a pattern,
structure, or setting.”
Student can: Write, List, Define with his knowledge if he
have.
COPREHENSION
Refers to a type of understanding or apprehension such
that the individual knows what is being communicated.
Student translates, comprehends or interprets information
based on prior learning like: Explain, summarize,
paraphrase, describe

20. COGNITIVE DOMAIN
APPLICATION
Refers to the “use of abstractions in particular and concrete
situations.”
Student selects, transfers and uses data and principles to
complete a problem with a minimum of direction.
How student can use, compute, solve and apply his knowledge.
ANALYSIS
Breakdown of a communication into its constituent elements or
parts. Student distinguishes, classifies and relates the evidence or
structure of a statement or question.
Student can analyze, categorize, compare and separate.

21. COGNITIVE DOMAIN
SYNTHESIS
Involves the “putting together of elements and parts so as to form a
whole.”
Student originates, integrates, and combines ideas into a product, plan
or proposal that is new to him.
He can create, design, invent and develop
He can combine different types of information to find alternative
solutions.
EVALUATION
Judgments about the value of material and methods for given
purposes.
Student can judge what he learned whether it is right or wrong. If wrong
than he can start the process again.
Student can judge, recommend, critique and justify.

22. BLOOM’S REVISED TAXONOMY (2001) , LORIN ANDERSON, A FORMER
STUDENT OF BLOOM, AND DAVID KRATHWOHL MADE THE FOLLOWING
CHANGES

23. THE AFFECTIVE DOMAIN
Skills in the affective domain describe the way people react
emotionally and their ability to feel other living things'
pain or joy. Affective objectives typically target the
awareness and growth in attitudes, emotion, and
feelings.
There are five levels in the affective domain moving
through the lowest-order processes to the highest:
Receiving, Responding , Valuing , Organizing and
characterizing.

24. AFFECTIVE DOMAINS
RECEIVING
The lowest level; the student passively pays attention.
Without this level, no learning can occur. Receiving is
about the student's memory and recognition as well.
EXAMPLE: Student saw a person helping poor...
RESPONDING
The student actively participates in the learning process,
not only attends to a stimulus; the student also reacts in
some way. EXAMPLE: He saw that people appreciating the
person who helped poor…

25. AFFECTIVE DOMAINS
VALUING
The student attaches a value to an object, phenomenon, or
piece of information. The student associates a value or some
values to the knowledge they acquired. Example: He gives
value that helping poor is an appreciable work…
ORGANIZING
The student can put together different values, information, and
ideas, and can accommodate them within his/her own schema;
the student is comparing, relating and elaborating on what has
been learned. Example: He organizes his learning that how he
can help poor…
CHARACTARIZING
The student at this level tries to build abstract knowledge.
Example: At this stage the habit becomes the part of his
character.

26. THE PSYCHOMOTOR DOMAIN
Skills in the psychomotor domain describe the ability to
physically manipulate a tool or instrument like a hand
or a hammer. Psychomotor objectives usually focus
on change and/or development in behavior and/or
skills.

28. BLOOMS TAXONOMY
Remember: define, repeat, record, list, recall, name, relate, underline.
Understand: translate, restate, discuss, describe, recognise, explain, express,
identify, locate, report, review, tell.
Apply: interpret, apply, employ, use, demonstrate, dramatise, practice,
illustrate, operate, schedule, sketch.
Analyse: distinguish, analyse, differentiate, appraise, calculate, experiment,
test, compare, contrast, criticise, diagram, inspect, debate, question,
relate, solve, examine, categorise.
Evaluate: judge, appraise, evaluate, rate, compare, revise, assess, estimate
Create: compose, plan, propose, design, formulate, arrange, assemble,
collect, construct, create, set-up, organise, manage, prepare.

29. KNOWLEDGE TO BE TESTED
Factual Knowledge
Terminology, Facts, Figures
Conceptual Knowledge
Classification, Principles, Theories, Structures, Frameworks
Procedural Knowledge
Algorithms, Techniques and Methods and Knowing when and how to use
them.
Metacognitive Knowledge
Strategy, Overview, Self Knowledge, Knowing how you know.

30. HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS
The term higher‐order thinking skills refers to the complex cognitive
processes by which individuals go beyond simply memorizing
information such as grammar rules and words.
Higher‐order thinking skills include, for example, developing logical
steps to work through language tasks, assessing the situation or
context in which they are to complete a task, finding a solution to a
problem (e.g., by taking into account the nature of a given task, the
resources available or required, the time allowed, and the people
involved), and making judgments of their own performance
through monitoring, evaluating, and reflecting on their thinking or
performance.
Higher‐order thinking skills should be considered an integral part of
ongoing language learning and development.

31. LOWER AND HIGHER ORDER SKILLS
Newman (1990), in order to differentiate between the two
categories of skills, concludes that the lower skills
require simple applications and routine steps.
In contrast and according to Newman (1993) higher order
thinking skills "challenge students to interpret,
analyze, or manipulate information" (P.44). However,
Newman argues that the terms higher and lower skills
is relative, a specific subject might demand higher
skills for a particular student, whereas, another one
requires lower skills.

32. ASSESSMENT PRACTICES
Many educators believe that in order to teach higher-order
thinking skills, to fill the gap between the teachers’
assessment practices and instructional tasks or goals, and
to implement new assessment ideas and classroom
practices, a great change from traditional assessment
which assess students’ abilities to remember the facts
(NRC, 2000), into authentic assessment that has the ability
to reflect and measure the actual learning-teaching
outcomes, and to evaluate and reform the goal of the new
curricula and teaching strategies used in classes is
required. As a result of this demand, other forms of
assessment have been sought and many alternatives have
been implemented.

33. WHAT IS AN OPEN BOOK EXAMINATION
• examinees are allowed to consult their class notes, textbooks, and
other approved material while answering questions.
•It is ideally suited to teaching programmes that especially aim at
developing the skills of critical and creative thinking.
• In the broadest sense, an open book exam allows students to consult
some form of reference material in the course of completing the exam.
• Open book exams and closed book exams have different pedagogical
ends.
• While a closed book exam “places a premium on accurate and
extensive recall, and unless carefully designed, its assessment of
students’ knowledge is likely to be dominated by that ability”.

34. OPEN BOOK EXAMS
open book exams places the focus on higher level
learning. Because open book exams don’t have the same
emphasis on memorization, questions can move up
Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, and ask
students to analyze, evaluate, or synthesize knowledge,
rather than just remember it. According to Chan, 2009.
• Students are allowed to review reference material during
the examination
• Exam questions are distributed to students in advance of
the exam, allowing students to prepare resources for use
in the exam.
• Students are allowed to take home their exams to
complete at home within a specified time period.

35. TYPES OF OPEN BOOK EXAMINATIONS
Restricted Type and Unrestricted Types
Restricted type:
1. Students are permitted to bring into the examination room one or
more specific documents approved by the course instructor.
2. Students may be permitted to consult printed documents such as the
logarithmic tables, dictionaries, or complete works of Shakespeare, but
no handwritten material or printed documents which have not had prior
approval.
3. The approved documents function more or less as appendices to the
question paper itself.
4. These examinations are not radically different from closed book
examinations. They do not present any special problems, irrespective
of the nature of the course.

36. TYPES OF OPEN BOOK EXAMINATIONS
Unrestricted Type:
• students are free to bring whatever they like.
• They may bring any books, lecture handouts of the course
instructor, or their own handwritten notes.
• The use of such examinations presumes certain teaching
strategies and types of questions.
• In particular, it demands that the course focuses on a set of
intellectual skills, rather than on the information content, and
that no content based questions be asked in the examination.

37. OPEN BOOK EXAM QUESTIONS
What kinds of questions will an open book exam have?
• Open Book Exams don't test students memory. They test
their ability to find and use information for problem solving,
and to deliver well-structured and well-presented arguments
and solutions.
• Open Book exam questions usually require students to
apply knowledge, and they may be essay-style questions or
involve explanations with real data or delivering solutions.
The style of question depends on the faculty or school
setting the exam.

38. OPEN BOOK EXAMS
Can be implemented relatively easily in
different environments and contexts
students should be
discouraged from thinking it is
an easy exam so do not need to
revise, plan or prepare in
advance
can require fewer ‘reasonable adjustments’
for students who need these in traditional
invigilated exams
can disadvantage students with hectic
home lives, with poor internet access
or limited IT kit (some just work on
phones)
are more accessible for those who may
typically struggle with the practical aspects
associated with time-constrained paper-
based written exams
the tight time-limit compared to a
standard assignment can be hugely
stressful for some students.
can test a range of skills including analysis
of a range of data types and sources
raises concerns about whose work is
actually being submitted.
students with poor memories are not
disadvantaged
can remove stress for students who do not
thrive in the ‘sudden death’ environment of

39. MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS (MCQ)
Advantages Disadvantages
Efficient for rapid testing
of factual material
Time needed to build the question bank -
questions must also be piloted to
determine facility values and
discrimination indices to select which
questions are suitable to include in
summative tests
well suited to large cohort expertise needed in question design,
subject content
instant feedback to
students
poorly designed questions make passing
by guesswork easy
marking is automated,
straightforward, and fast
(moderation is
recommended for
consistency)
students may not engage in a serious
way – “just an online quiz”
can connects with Moodle
gradebook
students may not check correct answers
or put in work to understand why they
were wrong.

40. ADVANTAGES OF MCQ
good track record of their summative usage in all disciplines
content coverage rather than question-spotting is good - can cover a
full range of module or programme
over time a question bank can be developed, which eases some of
the following disadvantages (time sink)
tests can be randomised so no two students get the same questions
in the same order
students can access or re-take during revision period
enables randomization of questions
can be time-restricted within a time window
scope for varying complexity
reusable from year to year (if using large question bank)
convenient for students via Moodle through single sign-on
easy to handle reasonable adjustments through group overrides
etc.