Investigating Faculty Practices of Online Assessment: Implications of Assessment Reforms in the Post-COVID Era

Abstract

During the current shift to online and/or hybrid models of assessment, some debate has sprung out on whether teachers' practices of assessment (TPoA) impact online assessment and whether such practices reflect teachers' conceptions of assessment (TCoA). However, we do not know whether this online mode of delivery can be conducive to valid, reliable, and fair assessments. Traditionally, assessment practitioners addressed the assessments' impact from unilateral, norm-referenced perspectives, and most often, assessment results are groundlessly reported without measuring them against such practices. This study addressed online assessment by identifying key issues pertaining to faculty practices of assessment (n=314, r=.917), and how they are related to the ways teachers carried out assessment. Confirmatory factor analysis results indicated that the 20-item inventory produced four factors on TPoA (method of assessment, purpose of assessment, improvement, and accountability) but with different wrong loadings of factors and indicators. Recommendations were made to develop teachers professionally to become active players in undertaking the necessary assessment reforms. The study had implications for classroom research and assessment reforms in the Higher Colleges of Technology in the UAE and beyond.