Challenges of traditional summative assessment in remote teaching and learning

Share challenges of traditional summative assessment in remote teaching and learning

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I once worked with Measurement Services Division in my country and one of the challenges of summative assessment at the national level (in administering end of year National Examinations) was CHEATING. Either the examination papers were leaked between the exit points from the head office to the province office and to the schools (so students had answers to the questions prior to the exam date) or students copied from each other during the exam time.

Cheating trends were often noticed during the marking sessions and such students were often penalized by non-issuance of their certificates.

We now have a monitoring system in place so this situation has greatly improved.

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Cheating has a higher tendency to occur. My country had a greater issue with national examinations got off to the hands of students well before they sat for the examination papers. I was teaching in the province and the very first students to receive the leak examination papers are those in the town/city. It become disadvantage for students of remote and rural schools. Till now I did not sure whether there was a system in place to counter that issue or not in my country.

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We have the same issue. Till now, our ministry of education is struggling to curb the leakage of national examination papers before the examination weeks.

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The traditional summative assessment in remote teaching may pose the following limitations:

  • Poor internet connectivity coupled with disruption during exam.
  • Limited exposure to ICT skills by a section of both learners and the facilitator.
  • It is a snap-shot hence may not be authentic in terms of gauging every learner’s mastery and acquisition of intended outcomes

In view of the above statement, as a teacher’s experience, most students when taking an online summative assessment as part of their final test for their external assessment, they did not use their skills or knowledge on a concept to attempt or respond to the questions. Instead of testing their understanding they:

  1. google search the questions
  2. use text books available at hand
  3. ask their colleague to do their final test for them,

This habit of students in sitting their online summative test can hinder their development in the learning process.

Some do their final test using their prior knowledge on the concept and content of topics tested but most did not. They always rely on things stated above but teachers should encourage students to be more sensible in the learning process which in their future allows them to improvise to strive for the best.