A Review of Literature to Understand Student’s Perceptions Regarding Online Assessments

Online assessments have been widely used in many disciplines (such as language learning, mathematic, and medical) as a kind of learning technology. Since students are users of online assessments, it is important to consider the perceptions of these assesses. Therefore, this study focused on understanding students’ perceptions of online assessments via reviewing the existing literature. This research includes a total of 61 studies and the common point of these studies is the inclusion of students’ views on online assessments. Students’ perceptions of online assessments were categorized in terms of (1) positive attitudes, (2) negative attitudes, (3) perceptions of cheating and plagiarism, and (4) perceptions of effect on learning. The expressions that stood out in category of positive attitudes towards online assessments were as follows: they wanted to use it in the future; and, online assessments did not increase anxiety. Besides, the most stressed negative attitude was about technical issues in online assessments. Thirdly, there were disagreements among students’ perceptions about cheating and plagiarism. For instance, some of the students stated that cheating was easy and higher in online exams, but others stressed the opposite. Finally, students’ statements showed that online assessments helped to learn class better. The findings of this study can help researchers in finding out which topics they could focus on in future research. For example, the reason for various disagreements in students’ perceptions warrants further investigation. Some of the areas of students’ disagreements were: fairness of online exams, students’ effort to study, and students’ level of comfort.