Tryst with the unknown: navigating an unplanned transition to online examinations

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the major challenges faced and lessons learned during the unplanned transition to online examinations (OE) at a traditional university following the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach This exploratory study involved two distinct samples (110 students and 30 instructors) drawn from a large public university and triangulated the qualitative and quantitative data to analyze how the university navigated the unplanned transition to OE. Findings The university faced several challenges related to a lack of proper institutional infrastructure, non-familiarity of the stakeholders with OE, lack of effective communication, limited student access to technology resources because of socio-economic impediments and academic integrity issues. Practical implications Short- and medium-term recommendations are proposed to enable continuity of teaching and learning in future emergency situations, including the establishment of technology-enabled exam centers, as well as strategies to assure instructor readiness for OE, academic integrity among students and the validity of the evaluation procedure for future OE. Originality/value This study shows how the unplanned transition to OE in a public university exposed new challenges for conducting OE, particularly in resource challenged emerging countries, where full integration of OE was a new experience and prior knowledge of potential issues was lacking.

The dark side of online transition of exams in higher education: a perspective of an emerging nation

“…By examining student perception towards online exams as well as how robust online exams are in the higher educational sphere, the paper has responded to the requirements of future research to examine how to build online exam robustness as well as investigate its impacts on key stakeholders such as students (Patael et al , 2022; Reedy et al , 2021). Previous work has provided a certain understanding of student perception of online exams (Ilgaz and Afacan Adanır, 2020; Laksana, 2021), the present study goes a step further to examine student perspectives of online examinations from an emerging country perspective, which is already facing its own set of challenges in the first place to adopt online learning technologies in the education field (Basuony et al , 2020; Mumtaz et al , 2022). This contributes to strengthening our understanding of the challenges and the dark side emerging from both a developed and developing country perspective, which helps to build a broader picture, which is essential as online education is adopted as a forced measure, especially during the COVID-19 era.…”

“…The shift to online exams was a key concern, especially with questions on its fairness and whether enough time was given to develop such transitions for both teachers and students (Burgess and Sieversten, 2020). This type of unplanned short-term transition is concerning in the emerging context, which is already facing resource constraint issues (Mumtaz et al , 2022). Emerging nations face many challenges, such as limited access to ICT resources, a lack of previous experience in online education and gaps in ICT literacy, to name a few (Afacan Adanır et al , 2020).…”

“…There is also emphasis required to understand the shift to online from a holistic stakeholder viewpoint, which includes the student perception of online examinations and their potential dark side (Reedy et al , 2021). Many of the studies that have looked at the phenomenon have taken a Western lens to explore the phenomenon, which highlights the need to address the online transformation of higher education from an emerging nation perspective (Basuony et al , 2020; Mumtaz et al , 2022). This means that the perceptions of online examinations, including the learners themselves in multiple cultural contexts, need further analysis (Afacan Adanır et al , 2020).…”