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With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, online assessment has become the dominant mode of examination in higher education institutions. However, there are contradictory findings on how students perceive online assessment and its impact on their academic performance. Thus, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the potential impact of online assessment on students' academic performance.

This study proposes a research model based on the task–technology fit theory and empirically validates the model using a survey from students in the UK. In addition, the study conducted four experiments based on paper-based and online assessments and analysed the data using paired sample t test and structural equation modelling.

The findings show that the use of online assessment has a positive impact on students' academic performance. Similarly, the results from the experiment also indicate that students perform better using online assessments than paper-based assessments.

The findings provide crucial evidence needed to shape policy towards institutionalising online assessment. In addition, the findings provide assurance to students, academics, administrators and policymakers that carefully designed online assessments can improve students' academic performance. Moreover, the study also provides important insights for curriculum redesign towards transitioning to online assessment in higher education institutions.

This study advances research by offering a more nuanced understanding of online assessment on students' academic performance since the majority of previous studies have offered contradictory findings. In addition, the study moves beyond existing research by complementing assessment results with the views of students in evaluating the impact of online assessment on their academic performance. Second, the study develops and validates a research model that explains how the fits between technology and assessment tasks influence students' academic performance. Lastly, the study provides evidence to support the wide use of online assessment in higher education.

This study aims to gain insights into how students perceive online examination practices and evaluation, as well as identify the key factors that impact their intentions toward online exams.

This empirical study conducted in India utilized an online survey method between May 24 and June 14, 2022. The data were collected from 712 undergraduate and postgraduate students through a Google Docs questionnaire. Descriptive analysis, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), regression and reliability analysis were conducted to analyze the data.

There are many studies related to the adoption of online learning. However, there are limited studies that explore the adoption and acceptance of online examinations and evaluations. This paper intends to fill this gap and tries to highlight important factors influencing online examination usage by the students. Five important factors emerged in the study include “pedagogy, validity, reliability,” “practicality,” “security,” “facilitating condition” and “intention,” The study concludes that taking tests online is preferred for several reasons, including the perceived increased dependability of grades and the decreased cost, time and effort associated with taking exams.

This research explores students' perceptions of learning management systems (LMS)-based online exams and provides insights for students to better prepare and adapt. It assists policymakers in developing fair assessment policies and improving LMS platforms. The study contributes to the theoretical understanding of e-learning and calls for further research to enhance the effectiveness of online exams. It identifies gaps in existing literature and recommends larger sample sizes, broader representation, longitudinal data collection and conversational methods for future research.

This study shows increasing research on e-learning and online examinations, mostly using quantitative methods. The important variables for understanding students' perceptions of online exams are “pedagogy, validity, reliability,” “practicality,” “security,” “facilitating condition” and “intention.” Concerns raised include validity, fairness and security. Electronic exams are more suitable for formative evaluation, and validity, reliability, security and adaptability are key pillars for successful online testing.

To improve the academic integrity of online examinations, digital proctoring systems have recently been implemented in higher education institutions (HEIs). The paper aims to understand how digital proctoring has been practised in higher education (HE) and proposes future research directions for studying digital proctoring in HE.

A systematic literature review was conducted. The PRISMA procedure was adapted for the literature search. The topics were identified by topic modelling techniques from 154 relevant publications in seven databases.

Seven widely discussed topics in literature were identified, including solutions for detecting cheating and student authentication, challenges/issues of uptakes and students' performance in different proctoring environments.

This paper provides insights for academics, policymakers, practitioners and students to understand the implementation of digital proctoring in academia, its adoption by HEIs, impacts on students' and educators' performance and the rapid increase in its use for digital exams in HEIs, with particular emphasis on the impacts of the systems on digitalising examinations in HE.

This review paper has systematically and critically described the state-of-the-art literature on digital proctoring in HE and provides useful insights and implications for future research on digital proctoring, and how academic integrity in online examinations can be enhanced, along with digitalising HE.

This research aims to investigate the leadership strategies employed by two higher education institutions in Malaysia as they navigated the shift to online delivery of their computer science programs in response to the demands of Education 4.0.

A phenomenological, comparative case study approach was used to delve into the leadership and management practices of these institutions during the transition to online learning. Data were collected through interviews and document analysis.

This study explores the leadership strategies employed by two higher education institutions in Malaysia during their transition to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Five key themes emerged from the data: leadership and team coordination, training and skill development, adaptation to new assessment methods, resource management and work culture and environment. Both institutions demonstrated effective leadership, continuous training and adaptability in assessment methods. However, differences were noted in resource management and work culture. Institution A's leader had to liaise with various departments and personally invest in equipment, while Institution B was already well-equipped. The work culture at Institution A demonstrated flexibility and mutual understanding, while Institution B used key performance indicators to measure progress. Despite these differences, both leaders successfully managed the shift to online teaching, underscoring the importance of effective leadership, continuous training, flexibility, resource management and a supportive work culture in managing change. The study also highlighted the distinct roles of curriculum leaders in both institutions, with Institution A's leader focusing on multiple activities, while Institution B's leader was able to focus solely on curriculum change due to their institution's preparedness.

This study provides a rich, qualitative exploration of the strategies and challenges faced by program leaders in managing the shift to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Future research could build on these findings by conducting similar studies in other educational contexts or countries to compare and contrast the strategies and challenges faced by program leaders. Additionally, future research could also employ quantitative methods to measure the effectiveness of different strategies in managing the shift to online teaching. This could provide a more comprehensive understanding of the factors that contribute to successful change management in educational institutions.

This study provides valuable insights for program leaders, educators and policymakers in managing change in educational institutions. The themes identified in this study – effective leadership, continuous training and skill development, flexibility in adapting to new assessment methods, effective resource management and a supportive work culture and environment – can serve as a guide for program leaders in managing future changes in their institutions. Moreover, the strategies employed by the program leaders in this study, such as forming a powerful coalition, providing training on online tools and prioritizing student welfare, can be adopted or adapted by other program leaders in managing change.

This study presents a unique contribution to the existing literature by offering a comparative analysis of change management strategies in two distinct educational institutions during the shift to online teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It uncovers the nuanced differences in leadership styles, resource management and pedagogical adaptations, providing a rich, context-specific understanding of the change process. The study fills a research gap by examining the practical application of Kotter's 8-Step Change Model and the McKinsey 7S Model in real-world educational settings. The findings offer valuable insights for other institutions navigating similar changes, thereby extending the practical and theoretical understanding of change management in higher education.

This paper aims to shed light on how the composition of future blended learning (BL) courses can be changed to provide students with quality academic learning experiences. The model suggested in this study will guide instructors on how to design their course learning outcomes to ensure effective delivery.

The new model has been developed by combining Bloom's taxonomy and Carman's model. Later, a new framework entitled “PATHCO” based on an extensive literature review is applied to enhance the quality of all five components of Carman's model.

The PATHCO conceptual framework has been developed to ensure quality in the five main teaching and learning factors. This framework covers criteria like pedagogical, assessments, technical, health care and organizational. Further research is required to broaden the main elements of the suggested framework and to validate this research through a case study.

The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the landscape of the education sector by encouraging an extensive acceptance of technology-enhanced learning and teaching. Blended learning (BL) has become the most appropriate medium to deliver online learning (OL). However, educators and students have reported dissatisfaction with the BL mode of delivery. To address this dissatisfaction, this study outlines, using the PATHCO model, all the essential building blocks which are required to find the right blend of both face-to-face and online components.

The purpose of this study is to generate knowledge about assessment methods in blended business education, which have become increasingly important to establish sustainable assessment practices that support knowledge acquisition for undergraduate students in business administration at a Colombian university.

For the analysis, a two groups comparison was performed using a nonequivalent control group design with a sample of 420 students. As this study wants to find insights to improve the knowledge on assessment topics in marketing research (MR) education, it was focused on the students from the business administration program. This study also uses individual scores from the state test as prior cognitive scores and the high school classification provided by the National Ministry of Education in Colombia (2012).

It was found that the variables that best predict performance on the MR course examinations were the mathematics skills and reading comprehension scores on the state test. The study also showed a better performance of female students on both assessment methods. There were no significant differences between the assessment methods or among the high school levels.

One of the limitations of this study is the limited number of items on the tests. Additionally, the authors recommend conducting an analysis of the differences between the testing items to provide a detailed explanation of students’ performance when comparing computer-based testing and paper-and-pencil testing.

Further design of teaching material and assessments online and offline, based on local and regional marketing problems, is suggested. As the current text and readings are more oriented to the English-speaking contexts, most of the problems presented are oriented to multinational companies and brands.

Insights into the skills required for future jobs provide valuable guidance (World Economic Forum, 2020). Essential skills for emerging roles, like data scientists, can find robust support within the MR course. To further enrich in-class and online exercises with Excel and SPSS, Colombian educators can leverage data sets obtained from sources like the national statistics office and international market intelligence databases available through the university’s library, including Passport and Statista. Engaging with authentic data sets provides students with a more profound understanding of practical applications in MR.

This approach facilitates the identification of key variables, such as assessment and cognitive abilities in math and reading, which predict students’ knowledge acquisition in MR. It not only offers insights into the relevant factors influencing learning in MR but also provides valuable feedback. Additionally, it suggests potential avenues for future research in this field.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically transformed higher education policy and practices across the globe, including Bangladesh. Higher education institutions (HEIs) were forced to deliver teaching and learning online. This chapter discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on teaching and learning practice in higher education in Bangladesh and highlights the cultural transformation of policy and practice. In addition, it proposes future directions on how to be prepared and addresses the challenges of emergencies and draws implications of the findings beyond the national context. In the beginning of the pandemic, most universities in Bangladesh had to initially shut down their operations without offering any alternatives. However, a number of universities gradually rolled out some online teaching and learning activities as the lockdowns kept extending. A large portion of the HEIs struggled to continue their online teaching and learning due to the lack of resources, i.e., devices, technological skills and training, lack of policy, negative mindset, poor network infrastructure, and high cost of internet. This unprecedented situation ushered in by the pandemic showed the lack of preparedness and below-par capacity to respond to emergencies for the continuation of higher education in Bangladesh. Furthermore, it highlighted that improving the higher education sector requires tremendous effort from the government, researchers, policymakers, practitioners, the universities, and other industries directly or indirectly related to the sector.

This article aims to elaborate the context-sensitive nature of credibility assessment by examining how such judgments are made in online discussion in times of uncertainty caused by Finland's intent to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in spring 2022.

The empirical findings draw on the qualitative content analysis of 3,324 posts submitted to a Finnish online discussion in February–March 2022. It was examined how the participants of online discussion assess the credibility of information sources referred to in debates on the NATO membership. It is assumed that the believability of the author of information is indicative of his or her expert power, for example based on the credentials of a scholar, while the credibility of information content, for example the provision of factual evidence is indicative of the source's informational power.

Political decision-makers, particularly the President of Finland were assessed as most credible information sources, due to their access to confidential knowledge and long-time experience in politics. The credibility assessments differed more strongly while judging the believability of researchers. On the one hand, their expertise was praised; on the other hand, doubts were presented about their partiality. Fellow participants of online discussion were assessed most negatively because information sources of these types are associated with low expert and informational power.

As the study concentrated on credibility assessments made in a Finnish online discussion group, the findings cannot be extended to concern the credibility judgments occurring information in other contexts.

The study is among the first to characterize the role of expert and informational power in credibility assessment in times of uncertainty.

Parents whose children have undergone an autism assessment often describe the process as extremely stressful. This affects how parents engage with services post-diagnosis, meaning less likelihood of using subsequent service support despite struggling to cope. Since parents already report many barriers to accessing services, e.g. long waiting lists, lack of co-ordination and limited resources (Sapiets et al. 2023), negative experiences during assessment should not pose another potential barrier to engagement. This study aimed to address how families’ needs can be better met during the assessment process.

In this qualitative study, the author conducted semi-structured interviews with 11 parents whose child had undergone an autism assessment in the last five years. Thematic analysis determined key themes.

The six themes were: clarity and communication, access to support and resources, aftercare, recognition of parent concerns, personalisation of the assessment process and concerns around the use of personal protective equipment/online assessments. These themes led to criteria to assess the quality of autism assessment services in line with parent perspectives.

These parent-informed criteria could facilitate the consideration of parents’ views into service evaluations of autism assessment services across the UK.

Previous research indicates that the autism assessment experience is often extremely stressful and overwhelming for families (Crane et al., 2016). Despite this, guidance to improve autism services rarely prioritises the opinions and experiences of service-users and their families. The criteria presented here were derived from themes identified by interviewing parents on their experiences of the autism assessment process, thus shifting the focus onto service-users.

The current study examined several aspects of validity evidence for the Faculty Readiness to Teaching Online (FRTO) scale.

Data were collected from 307 faculty in higher education. Construct validity was evidenced through an exploratory factor analysis and a reliability coefficient. Differential validity was explored using the differential item functioning analysis to explore potential bias in items due to gender and age. In addition, convergent validity was tested by correlating FRTO with years of teaching online, the primary modality of instruction and whether there is required training in online teaching by the institution.

The findings from validation showed that new factors emerged and also demonstrated differences based on instructors gender and age, as well as based on teaching experience and primary modality of teaching.

The findings confirmed the previous study's results (Martin et al., 2019) and provided some modifications to the instrument. The factor structure did not conform to the original four factors proposed in the instrument; instead, the newly loaded factors were course design and facilitation, course technologies, course expectations and resources and time management. The revised instrument can be presented and discussed at online teaching professional development programs to help faculty understand the core competencies they need to better instruct students.