Online Assessment of Primary Students’ Cognitive, Psychomotor, and Affective Domains: Practices from Urban and Rural Primary Schools in Indonesia

Abstract

This study intends to describe assessment strategies for young students’ online learning. The participants in this descriptive qualitative study were 15 primary school principals and 35 teachers teaching Years 4 and 5 in urban and rural schools on the island of Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara Province, who volunteered their participation after undergoing comparable procedures. Using operational concepts of assessment of learning for online learning, class observation, and interview were organized. The content and structure validity of the measures were evaluated in accordance with the developmental periods of young learners. The findings showed that the teachers assessed the primary students’ cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains interactively during the online class meetings, in their portfolio, and through attitude direct observation. Several assessment strategies were advocated to circumvent the shortcomings of online learning. A criterion-referenced evaluation was used to conduct the analysis. The theoretical implications of the findings suggest that the various assessment procedures adopted have decreased the negative washback of online exams; however, further research is required to determine the consistency of the outcomes of online tests with other types of evaluation.