Usage of online assessment in the Faculty of Business: report and recommendations

This paper examines important themes linked to online assessment and appropriate use of this assessment medium in the Faculty of Business. As things stand, there are some limitations to their use and some of these limitations are not always known or understood, such is the recency of this type of assessment. There is good theoretical and practical reason to propose that the application or adoption of the preceding recommendations to the Faculty’s assessment practices would help substantially in addressing the issue of academic integrity in online assessment which currently challenges the Faculty. The use of online assessment in higher education, in particular computer mediated assessment (CMA) and online quizzes, has been growing in response to pedagogical and organisational efficiency drivers and with the increasing availability of technology and online assessment software options. However, the use of online assessment is not without its challenges, and some of these challenges warrant investigation and resolution. The issues outlined in this report are experienced broadly across the education sector, though this study is limited in its inquiry to the Faculty of Business (survey) and to the USQ (focus groups). This report is a requirement of a Faculty of Business LTEC funded project titled ‘Bridging the gap between collaboration and cheating in online assessments: An exploratory study’. The stated outcomes of the project were to conduct an online survey of Faculty of Business academic staff and focus groups to inform and report on: 1. the extent of usage of CMA’s and electronic quizzes 2. what measures are used to minimise opportunities for cheating and collusion, and 3. propose guidelines which contain examples of resource and pedagogical best practices for the conduct of online assessments1. The issue was analysed within a framework of what Faculty of Business participants told us, what the broader USQ academic community told us, and what relevant literature told us. The structure of the report addresses these three foci.

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