The new face of alternative assessment in accounting sciences - technology as an anthropomorphic stakeholder

Abstract

Worldwide, more and more higher education institutions are making use of online or distance education, due to the increasing demand for tertiary education. In this article, the problem addressed relates to the importance of technology as a stakeholder in alternative assessments for undergraduate accounting sciences modules in an online, non-venue-based, technology-enhanced environment. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how technology, due to its importance and impact, acts similarly as a human stakeholder and should be treated as an anthropomorphic stakeholder in an online technology-enhanced environment, considering its powerful role. A qualitative approach was followed, and action research was used to develop a conceptual framework. This conceptual framework demonstrates how stakeholder theory could ensure the legitimacy of qualifications through identity verification of students in an online environment through improved performance and innovation potential. These findings contribute to the body of knowledge and due to its importance, technology could be considered as an anthropomorphic stakeholder in the creation, improvement, or restructuring of assessments at online educational institutions.

Digital Assessment in Technology-Enriched Education: Thematic Review

“…The educator is the one who provides quality questions and support for achievement [56,57], as well as explaining the assessment process [58]. Important conditions provided by the educator are detecting plagiarism and ensuring fairness [56,59]. Recalling the importance of feedback, the educator should provide useful feedback [58].…”

“…This review of the literature indicates the qualities necessary for an educator, i.e., to be flexible and open [60]. First of all, educators provide the process itself, administrative transactions and examinations [56], which include ensuring authorship and authentication; collecting results; and maintaining safe user data [54,59,61]. Regarding the security conditions, it is worth mentioning secure web browser availability and error recognition [53,61].…”

“…Below, general characteristics will be indicated initially, then specific benefits will be focused on and, in closing, the specific benefits for educators will be focused on. First, e-assessment is described as an innovative and powerful tool in education [59,62]. This can be explained by society's focus on technological development and digital transformation [1,63] as this is where most innovation is taking place, including virtual education [4,64].…”

“…Assessing complex, open-ended work is a serious challenge [52][53][54]65,66,70,75]. The next important aspect is the fairness and reliability of the assessment, which is related to unwanted activities such as impersonation, contract cheating and plagiarism; the possibility of the 'hidden' usage of additional materials; and privacy and data security [54,56,59,60,71,73]. Different technological limitations are also a challenge for the educators.…”

“…Different technological limitations are also a challenge for the educators. It is worth mentioning the limitations of automated marking and the limited ability to recognize correct input, as well as students' resistance to using technology [51,54,58,59,68]. This, of course, requires an additional contribution of work and time to overcome these challenges.…”