Zarin Tasnim

Topic: Challenges in Implementing Online Language Assessment-A Critical

Reflection of Issues faced amidst Covid 19 Pandemic in Bangladesh

Introduction: This pandemic through open education challenges to the physical

routine classes where students get chance to interact with their fellow mates, asking
questions to their teachers if they do face it but in the case of online education which is
now going on due to closure of institutions, movement controls and having lockdowns,
this interactive classes which are not possible to have regularly. However, in this critical
situation, some people take it as the biggest challenge for throwing the platform to the
technology integrations for online learning adaptation (Taslima, 2020). Besides, it also
creates the biggest damage in case of control effort, a crisis in case of management and
act of facing new arising challenges through online class mode. Though the assessment
process hampers due to class mode as in physical class where students are being assessed
predominantly through pen and paper, sitting in a conventional mode in the class which is
based on a summative assessment ( Yangung & Jack, 2020).In language courses mainly
see is that it differs slightly indifferent nature in case of learning outcomes, need to assess
the language performance, potential skills, abilities which now impose a great challenge
towards instructors at the time of the pandemic.

Problem Statement: Nowadays graduate of English language that has

communicative competence, they are rising rapidly for increasing the growth in business
and economic activities. Gradually in Bangladesh also for job purposes, they are
emphasizing in language degree and also in communicative competence in this 21st era
where these educational goals should be attained by undergraduates. Academic grades of
the undergraduates are not well good, especially in the case of English language courses
which is one of the important aspects based on their academic they are being recruited in
multinational companies (Luis, 2016).In this era, it is being important in the field of
employability and career growth to give more emphasis on English language mastery for
the graduates. Through studies, it has been found that students do have a lack of
compatibility, lack of technical skills, communicative competence, and also the skills
which do mostly need to seek employability rather than being jobless even after being
graduated (Tanzania & Zaima, 2015 ). During the current situation of Covid 19
Pandemic, academic progress are being affected severely and eventually, assessment
process, preparing the grades and the overall procedures of academics progress will have
a doubtful concept by the institutions' community that include parent, employers and the
general public if graduates are having poor result on the required attributes. About this
concept, Jack and Pile (2014) stated that it is an open g for the instructors in case of
literacy in language assessment which requires for the instructors to acquire knowledge
of assessment, construct items, assessing items, and also engaging themselves for
analysis of data through language assessment.
Numerous studies have high lightened the gaps in terms of assessment beliefs by teachers
which are mainly caused due to insufficient assessment engagement, lack of minimum
number of training opportunities, lack of assessment disclosure (Shingzeen, 2016). When
the advance technology has become a part of our life from that teachers has also
mentioned that their roles have become minimal in case of developing and implementing
assessments as every assessment is done through the advance technology (John, 2017).
Moreover, the learners also prefer advanced technology to enhance communication and
additional attention rather than depending on teachers (Jena, 2019). In the 21 st century, it
has become a common trend in educational sectors that for every platform such as
classroom teaching and learning or collecting data from any sources digital platform is
mostly used rather than having classroom teaching and learning which is not the
appropriate way for the learners to learn. Hence, these all negative framework becomes
more critical gradually within the perception of digital learning which requires a different
set of instructional learning approaches.

Literature Review: The importance of digital education among learners is growing

rapidly which also has become a modern trend in higher education (Clark & Stephen,
2018). It has also changed the setup from conventional classroom teaching into the digital
setup of classroom learning (Zakaria, 2015). Additionally, student’s assessment process
influences their quality of their graduation but due to lack of this modern technology
many assessment which are found to be discourage by this intention (Mohammad &
Abdullah, 2020). In the mean time of digital education platform,(Ahmed, 2020)observed
that during the time of pandemic that many universities do not have access to digital
platform, even if some of them have then also they are not well developed for using
widely to have e- assessment and e- feedback. Moreover, maximum management systems
have their limitations for online learning to support the educational functions which
creates impact in learning outcomes (Jeremey & Matt, 2020).However, still in some of
the institutions their education platform are not fully transform into digital education and
even some of them have but then also some students or teachers are not adopting easily as
they are being used with the conventional teaching and learning mode ( Louis, 2019).
Through studies, it has been found out that educational practices are being conducted
fully online or hybrid mode ( Malina & Jackbon, 2020).Digit learning platform offers
immense potential and outcomes for higher education both for faculty members and
students in terms of best practices and approaches for innovation (Elena, 2018).

Methodology: The main purpose of this study is to know how teachers and students
during the time of pandemics utilize digital platform for educational purposes and what
are the main challenges that they do face for both learning and teaching purposes. The
research design for this qualitative study has been set by considering literature review and
the research questions. Due to the pandemic situation of Covid 19, it was not possible to
set the study in a physical way. The study was been set at home through Tele
communication and through video call. There are mainly five participants who are
teachers of different universities given interviews through online platform, for each of
them 15 to 20 minutes to share their views, problems and main challenges that they are
facing .Conducting interviews held in two sessions as in first part they introduce
themselves and their teaching life experiences between these two sessions like online
platform and conventional physical classroom. In second part they talked about the
problems and biggest challenges they are facing during the time of pandemic how to
resolve this and what should the steps which will be taken by the government to develop
the online platform in education sector.
Findings: This study finds out that how the uses of digital teaching and learning
platform are rapidly growing, especially during the time of pandemic .However, those
who already knew how to use this digital platform, they are becoming more expert and
those have lack in using this platform, they are still lagging behind especially for those
teachers for whom this platform is totally unknown as they don’t even know how to
access(Monjur, 2020).It is now becoming an issue that many educational institutions do
not have proper infrastructure responsive policies, effective process for digital practices
so for which they need to cultivate and work towards establishing that. Additionally, the
findings from this study also reveal that previously it has been seen that online mode of
teaching practices are done partly, but now it has to be done on full swing online mode
during the time of pandemic .Even the final examinations are also taken through flexible
online version language tasks. All of these were done through online interaction tools
which have multiple functionalities like recording and taking attendance. Many
educational expertise respondents that this online communication tools classroom could
not fully replace the personal touch and way of impact of conventional face to face
classroom assessment sessions. They also mentioned that these online tools are
inadequate to replace conventional way of teaching and learning in the classroom where
the performance of students are real time based like oral responses, group interaction,
writing, physical activities like drama or debate. Sometimes, before doing the task they
have proper selection and planning how to accomplish the task. Through my collecting
data I got to know that they have crucial issue of internet bandwidth, speed and stability
to sustain the online learning sessions. Some of them also mentioned that those of their
students who are not at their respective homes, they have equity and disparity issues in
terms of internet access. However, through disruptions and technical defect to online
lesson which have been experienced by both the teachers and the students.
The second issue is that more or less many teachers know how to use and conduct
the class by using digital platform. Apart from this, delivering lectures through online
mode and interaction, the ambivalence of the less online group became recognizable
during this pandemic. Even in online teachers do faces many challenges for conducting
assessment in terms of planning, executing and monitoring the students particularly for
summative assessments. For example, finding the suitable tools for the assessment of
specific language skills which can be productive or receptive skills was quite challenging
as due to the issues unavailability, internet access. Additionally, the rate of student’s
participation in online learning and assessment process has become limited within a
favorable condition. Besides, there is lack of having specific online language guidelines
that explicitly spell out best practices for the language assessments for the language
instructions, undergraduate administrators .This type of guidelines should be assist
among all parties such as, to take less time for preparing online lectures, improving
technology facilities in the classroom, set learners in a goal to achieve the learning
outcomes of the language courses.

However, educational institutions authorities are urged to adept for managing issues such
as technology acceptance in education sector. Additionally, special attention must be paid
to develop guidelines which targets to have effective implementation for online language
assessments to have best practices. In addition, from this recent study I have also found
that though this pandemic of Covid 19 transform the educational system in full swing
online mode, but still many institutions do not have access to the internet connections and
even government do not take any steps and as a result many students being drop out from
the educational sector and involved in many crimes and murder and many girls got
married at a very early age as maximum students cannot afford to bear the cost of internet
if their institutions do not provide. .

Discussion: Gradually the demand of language assessment is fully fledged through

online mode which ensure that their real competency is properly determine (Milani &
Tania, 2017).(Capriano & Elena , 2020) believe that at the time of crucial need, the
learners need to be familiarize with the assessment tools on which tool is suitable in
terms of doing different types of tasks and formats and also allowing them to being
adapted with the new form of strategies for having different types of online assessment
tasks. Similarly, Banny & Benett (2015) believes that it would be quite challenging to
shift from conventional paper assessment to digital version assessment for higher
education where there is lack of technology facilities, and not having proper online
response system for assessing the students.
Despite of having massive benefits which generates in educational sector for having the
advance technology adoption and digital tools for the integration of learning purposes
such as, assessing learning attainment through web based or in online mode. However,
due to having some discrepancy and scarcity this could still be disclosure between two
ways of online assessment tools capability, such as: summative and formative. Besides,
there is a clear insufficiency of not getting proper instructional based feedback from the
teacher, if they get the automated feedback as it is done automatically through online for
which teachers were not able to know about their students progress time to time(Halim &
Nasrin, 2019).Especially in the online learning platform it has been noted that when
learners are getting automated feedback or summaries for outcomes they are still lagging
behind because through online mode it is quite impossible for the teachers to give
detailed feedback at a time or even some students want to know about their lack or
progress which is quite impossible to have in online class mode (Enzo & Mac, 2019)
Currently, those who are new in this online mode, they are very sensitive if they
do any small mistakes. They try to follow each instructions on what basis they can have
full swing online mode class. Sometimes, it has also been seen that some teachers do
panic as they think that if they do any sorts of mistakes then not only it will hamper
his/her class but it creates serious problem in online platform. Though in some sites there
are minute details on how to use the platform for their class and which will have affect
for the new users to have difficulties to follow and understand and what was required
from the task. Hence, it is necessary to have detailed instructions both for the new and old
users of online learning platform so that they can get rid of this type of problem. Thus,
they are being more prepared to remember the lessons they put the information which are
required and achieve purposeful learning (Tajuddin, 2012).
Moreover, Rosemblatt(2020) also stated that in this era language instructors
needs were being adapted with full swing online mode necessities of the language
learners who are being already used to with the digital platform and develop competency
for creating interactive online language classrooms. As such Taslima(2020), stated that
through her investigation she got to know that for formative assessment there is
efficiency of having online response tolls and emphasizes more on the need to develop
teacher and student interaction techniques. Through this interactive and active learning
learners will get more interested to get themselves involved in interactive and active
learning environment and find out about their own gaps in online learning. Especially at
the time of this current circumstances a framework is needed to use or for giving
guidelines for the implementation of online language assessment that will help the
language teachers to make plan effectively and administer competence based assessment
and the principles of evidence which is based on reliability and validity and
feedback(Zeneba &Gomes, 2014).
Lastly, through my interviews for the purpose of this study I got to know more or
less similar observations and views which is being depicted and cited in the above
scheme and cited literature. They have mentioned that based on realities and challenges
which requires in the aspect of online language assessment literacy of language
instructors, learners familiarity and willingness, lack of online assessment administration
instructions, internet access. In general, all of my participants stated that online learning
as a whole is not fully established by the higher education institution has and for which
many students still are not getting proper education and some of them even stop their
study life as they do not have access to online class.

Conclusion: Through the findings of this study which are significant in

providing the detailed data about the online academic delivery courses at universities that
how they are being teaches, in what way they are being teaches, what are the main
challenges that teachers face mostly whether the government takes any necessary steps to
provide online access to those universities where there is no facilities regarding that.
After getting to know and understand the current condition of online language assessment
challenges which is being pointed out from this study, it will cover the way for taking
necessary measures and initiatives in a smooth way to have improved technology and
internet access for having effective online language assessment strategies for
implementing .This current pandemic of Covid 19 makes them realizes and recognizes
the whole range of inadequacies which should have been addressed earlier. Additionally,
this study also pointed out that not only there should have well developed internet access
but also it is important to have explicit framework or instructions for having best
practices in online language assessments to uplift the validity and reliability principles
and its best practices. This measuring part is crucial for the undergrad as it relates with
their grading policies and assessment and their over all learning process and what they
learn from that.

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