Assessing students’ writing skills in virtual classroom: strategies and challenges in EFL context

Abstract

The massive implementation of online learning is seen as a great movement in EFL learning during pandemic COVID-19. However, it has complexities in its practices, especially in conducting online assessment. This descriptive qualitative study aimed at exploring online assessment strategies used to assess writing and the challenges encountered by the teachers during the assessment. The data were collected through an online open-ended questionnaire administration to 16 EFL teachers. Thematic data analysis method was applied in analyzing the data by identifying themes and sub-themes from the data obtained. The result indicated that several online assessment strategies were utilized by the EFL teachers to assess writing, namely writing report, writing genre text, writing short story, writing summary, and answering essay-based test. Those strategies were done through learning management system (LMS) in which the delivery and submission of the assessment were done online. Some prominent challenges encountered by EFL teachers in conducting online assessment to assess writing skills included academic integrity, time allocation, punctuality, Internet access, and guidance and feedback. It implies that the online assessment strategy chosen by the teachers to assess students’ writing skills needs to consider the challenges that might be encountered.

English language assessment in Indonesian senior high schools: Perceived challenges and prospective solutions

“…When there are many students in a class, teachers will probably not be able to provide each student with useful feedback and comments on their assessments. This issue of limited time to test students' language skills is especially apparent when measuring writing skills (Dewi et al, 2023). This is also an issue in other developing countries in Asia.…”

“…One study concerns the qualitative analysis of challenges and prospects of assessing higher-order thinking skills in EFL classes after joining professional development (Sumardi & Guci, 2023). Dewi et al (2023) conducted a descriptive qualitative study to explore online writing assessment strategies and teachers' difficulties when administering the assessment. In addition, in their mixed method approach, Pambudi and Ciptaningrum (2023) analyzed challenges English teachers face when completing online assessments during COVID-19 and how to solve them.…”