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.

Language of Medical Instruction in Palestine: A Mixed Method Approach of Students’ Perceptions

“…A large number of those who study medicine come from either Arabs living in Israel or those whose families live or work in Gulf State countries due to financial issues. Moreover, the respondents vary in terms of linguistic as well as educational potentials and capabilities; medical students are mostly better than the others in the faculty especially at English let alone other academic subjects [ 38 ]. In both universities, admission depends on students' exit exams and their ultimate high school GPA.…”

“…It is worth mentioning that these students were taught in Arabic, to a large extent, and Hebrew, to some extent, at the school level. Very few students were taught using English at schools [ 38 ].…”

“…Then, they were sent to 10 arbitrators who have adequate knowledge in the field; all of them hold Ph.D. degrees and work as faculty members; they have adequate experience in research writing and reviewing; some of them serve as journal editors or members of an editing board. To evaluate the survey, the arbitrator adopted the weighted average method because the survey consisted of subsections and some of these subsections have higher significance than others [ 38 ]. Their scores were collected, and the correlation between each sentence item and the total was calculated to find out how the scores of the items are related; the items whose correlation was less than 0.6 were deleted; then, the mean scores for the first and last quartiles were calculated for rating the items by the arbitrators.…”

“…Qualitatively, MAXQDA was used by the researcher himself to calculate frequencies, percentages, and students' responses, opinions, and behaviors on the open question. MAXQDA is a software program designed for computer-assisted qualitative method data and text analysis; it offers tools for the organization and analysis of qualitative data especially those obtained as texts to attain valuable explanation and comprehensive understanding or interpretation of a phenomenon or a tendency [ 38 ].…”

An Investigation of Students’ Preferences, Satisfaction and Performance in Online Assessment Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic in Türkiye

“…The study results indicated that students' attitudes differed significantly by age and gender. Binnahedh (2022), Ayyoub & Jabali (2021), Rajeh et al (2022), Ahmet et al (2021), and Aljohani et al (2021 were other researchers dealing with online exams and found that university students generally had positive attitudes towards e-assessment methods including online tests, e-portfolios and blogs.…”