Perception of Students on Online Exams and How Sequential Exams and the Lockdown Browser Affect Student Anxiety and Performance

Abstract

Online education has become increasingly popular over the past few years, especially with the global pandemic forcing students to learn remotely. Although online education offers various benefits, including flexibility, accessibility, and convenience, it presents unique challenges, including the use of Lockdown Browser for sequential online exams that can increase students’ anxiety levels and decrease their performance. In this paper, an empirical study was undertaken to examine the students’ preferences for online exams and how the protracting exams impacting on students’ anxiety and performance taking into consideration factors such as gender, class standing, and the availability of a personal study space. The finding reveals that sequential exams, errors in questions, use of lockdown browser, writing exams in different time zone, and one question per page increase students’ stress and anxiety. The results also suggest that there was a significant difference in anxiety levels between students who received different letter grades, specifically, students who received lower grades reported higher levels of anxiety. However, the gender and delivery of the course did not appear to have a significant impact on anxiety levels.