How successful the online assessment techniques in distance learning have been, in contributing to academic achievements of management undergraduates?

Hiruni Thathsarani; Dinushika Kaushalya Ariyananda; Chalani Jayakody; Kerthiga Manoharan; A A S N Munasinghe; Nilmini Rathnayake

doi:10.1007/s10639-023-11715-7

How successful the online assessment techniques in distance learning have been, in contributing to academic achievements of management undergraduates?

Educ Inf Technol (Dordr). 2023 Apr 3:1-25. doi: 10.1007/s10639-023-11715-7. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Hiruni Thathsarani¹, Dinushika Kaushalya Ariyananda¹, Chalani Jayakody¹, Kerthiga Manoharan¹, A A S N Munasinghe¹, Nilmini Rathnayake¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Business Management, SLIIT Business School, Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT), Malabe, Sri Lanka.

Abstract

The implementation of online teaching and assessments was prompted by the current COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, all universities had to adopt the distance-learning method as the only choice to continue education delivery. This study's main objective is to understand the effectiveness of assessment techniques followed through distance learning in Sri Lankan management undergraduates during COVID-19. Furthermore, utilizing a qualitative approach and thematic analysis for data analysis, semi-structured interviews with 13 management faculty lecturers selected through the purposive sample technique were used for data collection. The survey was conducted via an online questionnaire that was distributed to Sri Lankan undergraduates, and a total of 387 samples from management undergraduates were drawn for the quantitative data analysis using a simple random sampling technique. The study's main findings revealed that five online assessments are currently being utilized to evaluate management undergraduates' academic performance under distance learning, including online examinations, online presentations, online quizzes, case studies, and report submissions. In addition, this study statistically and with some qualitative empirical evidences in the existing literature proved that online examinations, online quizzes, and report submissions have a significant impact on undergraduates' academic performance. Further, this study also recommended that universities should implement procedures for online assessment techniques in order to assess the quality assurance of assessment techniques.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10639-023-11715-7.

Keywords: Academic performance; Assessment techniques; Distance learning; Management undergraduates.

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