STUDENTS’ PREFERENCES IN ONLINE ASSESSMENT PROCESS: INFLUENCES ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCES

Abstract

In the constructivist approach, various self-assessment techniques are being developed to enable students to assess themselves in the learning process. The purpose of the study is to investigate relation between students’ preferences in assessment process and students’ performances. The study was conducted with 67 sophomore students enrolled in Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technologies at a State University. The study was carried out in “Measurement and Evaluation in Education” course. At the beginning, Moodle LMS was used to define the preferences of students about their own assessment criteria (discussion, quiz, assignment and viewing of course content). Throughout the process, students were received the course instructional package in the classroom. Then they were asked to fill the assessment activities on the LMS. Students’ actual performances in online activities in terms of their preference about assessment criteria was calculated as students course achievement scores. The mean value of the scores and the standard deviation were guided us to divide the participants into three groups (unsuccessful, moderately successful, successful) considering their means and standard deviations. Then, the preferences of students and their academic achievements were associated in each group. As a result, various criteria were come to front in both successful and unsuccessful groups. Surprisingly, none of the students preferred viewing course content and participating in discussions as the highest assessment criterion. Besides, it was found that all the students in successful group preferred viewing course content as lowest assessment criterion. The results indicated that, there were no prominent criteria in the relations between the preferences of students about assessment process and the academic performances. However, most of the students in unsuccessful group performed better in assignment although they did not preferred the assignment as the highest assessment criterion. At the end of the study, we noticed that while considering the criterion in the assessment process, taking students’ perspectives and preferences into consideration motivated students positively and had somehow related to their academic achievements. Thus, it is hoped that the study can provides an insight to future studies to enrich assessment activities with giving responsibilities to students in learning, especially in assessment process.