Online and Offline Assessment Methods in Higher Education: A Revisitation of EFL Teachers’ Perceptions and Practices

Abstract

—Assessment is a key component of the educational spectrum and engages teachers in evaluating students’ performance through various methods. During the Covid-19 pandemic, teachers employed various assessment methods through the online mode of teaching and learning; now, at the beginning of the end of the pandemic, teachers are back to practicing offline assessment methods. This study identifies English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ perceptions of online versus offline assessment methods in higher education. Furthermore, it targets the best skill-wise assessment methods and constraints that teachers can use when applying EFL assessment methods in both online and offline learning modes. To achieve the study objectives, a descriptive-diagnostic approach was applied; the data were collected from 61 EFL teachers through a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The findings show that EFL teachers perceive assessment methods in the online mode of learning as being of a medium level of utility, whereas they perceive assessments in the offline mode of learning as being highly useful. Furthermore, statistically significant differences were found between the EFL teachers’ perceptions of the utility of assessment methods in offline and online modes of learning: the teachers perceived assessments as being significantly more useful in the offline mode of learning. It was also found that the greatest constraints of EFL assessment methods in an online learning mode are issues of cheating and impersonation, insufficient exposure to information technology, and lack of awareness of assistive evaluation tools. In the offline learning mode, the greatest constraints of EFL assessment methods are a lack of awareness of assessment methods and classroom management. In light of these new findings, a set of recommendations is suggested for further research.