A Systematic Literature Review on Online Exams in COVID-19 Pandemic: Assessment Methods, Students' Preferences, Dishonest Behaviors and Challenges in Online Exams

Abstract

The devastating impacts of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have converted higher education around the world into online education. Online exams can be recognized as the best alternative approach for evaluating students’ performance as part of this online education. Online exams are not an extremely novel experience to the modern world since they were implemented a few decades back. However, there are loopholes in online assessment methods, issues related to students’ preferences as well as challenges with ensuring academic integrity in online exams. This study provides a systematic review of online exams through a detailed investigation. This study explores online assessment methods that best fit to evaluate students’ performance in online education. The factors impacting students’ preferences on online exams are identified and explored. The study examines the possible attempts among the students that violate academic integrity in online assessments, and reveals common online dishonest behaviors and cheating practices among the students. Also, possible countermeasures to detect academic dishonest behavior are identified. Furthermore, the study investigates the emerging challenges in online exams which can arise in online exam design and implementation stages. Secure methods for conducting trustworthy online exams are discussed with a detailed exploration. Overall findings of this study exhibit the best approaches for conducting student evaluations in the online mode, that provide alternative solutions to cope with challenges from COVID-19 towards the continual performance of higher education around the world.