Abstract
While online assessment provides a variety of opportunities for teachers and students such as fast scoring and immediate feedback, it also entails several challenges such as online test anxiety. Extreme feelings of stress and anxiety often have debilitating effects on learners' abilities and performances on exams. This chapter aimed at determining pre-service EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers' concerns over online exams and test anxiety. The participants included 62 pre-service EFL teachers at the Department of Foreign Language Education at a state university in Turkey. The responses provided by the participants were subject to content analysis to determine the factors leading to debilitative anxiety. The results indicated that several factors such as technical difficulties and (contract) cheating were among the challenges faced during online assessment with time limitations.
TopLiterature Review
Compared to emergency language teaching and learning, in planned distance/online education, teachers and learners know what is required and act accordingly. That is, learners and teachers choose to learn and teach in this way and comply with the regulations. Based on the content and objectives of the specific language courses, teachers also need to select types of language assessment items (Table 1) and plan the assessment activities.
Table 1. Types of language assessment items
| Selected response | Productive (alternative assessment) |
• Multiple-choice
• Multiple responses
• Dichotomous items (e.g., True/False; Yes/No)
• Cloze
• Text segment ordering
• Matching
• Short answer
• Text gap (remove phrase- and clause-level material from original) | • In-class performance, participation, and observation
• Projects
• Open-book
• (Digital) portfolios
• Self- assessment
• Peer-assessment
• Journal writing
• Discussions
• (Live) interviews |
*Based on Alderson (2000), Brown and Abeywickrama (2019), Çetinkaya and Yolcusoy (2020), Grabe (2009), Hedgcock and Ferris (2018), Hughes (2002), Haladyna and Rodriguez (2013), Kılıçkaya (2018)
Key Terms in this Chapter
Anxiety: Anxiety can be defined as one’s reaction to stress. It might be viewed as the feeling of fear or apprehension in a specific situation. In educational settings, this feeling is more related to possible failure in an exam or performance required.
Selected Response Items: Selective response items are those items on a language test that require the test taker to select the correct response from a set of possible responses.
Productive Items: Productive items are those items in a language test that require test takers to generate an original response rather than simply selecting a response from a given set. Examples of productive items include essay questions, writing prompts, and oral questions.
Online/Digital Assessment Platforms: These platforms are computer-based systems that allow educators to administer and score assessments. These platforms can be used to assess student learning in real-time, and examples of online assessment platforms include Moodle, Socrative, and Quizizz.
Online/Digital Language Assessment: Any form of assessment taken or submitted online using a technological device such as a tablet or a laptop. These might include a (live) online quiz, digital portfolio, audio and/or video recordings of language performance.
Contract Cheating: The form of academic dishonesty. In this form of dishonesty, learners often pay others to do the course requirements such as assignments or thesis work.
EFL: English as a Foreign Language. This term is used to the study and use of English in countries where English is not the official or mother language and mainly taught and learned in classroom settings.
Pre-Service Language Teachers: Pre-service language teachers are those who are enrolled in a teacher training program at a university. This can include individuals who are still completing their own language studies, as well as those who have recently been hired to teach but have not yet started their teaching careers.