Pharmacy Students’ Experiences, Preferences and Perceptions on Online Assessment

Abstract:

Objectives: The aims of this study are to determine the students’ experiences, preferences and perceptions of the online assessment. Methodology: The instrument consists of a selfanswered 45 items questionnaire. The online assessments refer to quizzes and tests from any of the courses listed in the academic plan and conducted using the i-learn platform. Data was collected from 248 students of Bachelor of Pharmacy (Honours) in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) from all level of study according to the quantity in the stratified sample. The respondents were given 10 minutes to answer the questionnaire before it was collected. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 21.0. Results: Majority of the students (65.3%) had attempted more than five online assessments, access it from home (64.1%) and use a notebook (84.3%) with a Google Chrome browser 65.7%). Slightly over a third (40.7%) experienced technical problem while attempting the assessment and a third (30.1%) of the problems were resolved within a day. Majority of the students rated their experience of online assessment ranging from 5-8 on a scale of 1-10 with speed of the internet connection as the most important factor to be considered. Most of the students gave a ‘neutral’ and ‘agree’ statement in terms of perceptions and tend to answer ‘agree’ and ‘strongly agree’ towards the statement on the preferences of online assessment. Conclusion: The neutral perceptions showed that there is room for improvement in conducting online assessment such as user-friendly interface, providing an accurate assessment of their knowledge and a challenging assessment for the course.

Key words: Online assessment, Pharmacy students, Preferences, Perceptions, Experiences.