Medical Students’ Evaluation of Online Assessment: A Mixed-Method Account of Attitudes and Obstacles

Abstract

This mixed-method account explores the medical students’ perceptions and attitudes regarding online assessment in two Palestinian universities. The researchers aimed at identifying the way medical students look at online assessment, as well as the pitfalls and the drawbacks of such an atypical evaluation method at the university level. Of the large number of medical students enrolled in the two universities, 302 completed and returned the survey, and 61 students were selected to interpret their open responses qualitatively. The study findings suggest that the evaluation of Al-Quds University in Jerusalem was better and higher than that of the An-Najah National University in Nablus. Statistically significant differences were found, when some demographic variables, i.e., gender and year of study interaction were selected. Finally, the study respondents highlighted a number of drawbacks for online assessment, which the researchers sorted into eight main categories that varied in percentages. The medical students showed their dissatisfaction with this type of assessment, for many considerations, including, but not limited to, technical and administrative matters in nature.