Exploring the cognitions of Iranian university TEFL teachers and students of the efficacy of online assessment practices in the wake of Covid-19

The coronavirus pandemic not only did present public health challenges, it also disrupted education all over the world. Despite considerable human and financial losses on a global scale, the pandemic unveiled an unprecedented opportunity for educational system to embrace and incorporate online learning systems into their mainstream instructional agendas. To prevent the spread of the virus, like many other countries, the Iranian universities converted their system into distance education. Since the educational centers had already delivered two semesters of on-line education, there was a need to address the quality of online assessment as part of the attempt to gauge the accountability of online pedagogical practices. Thus the current study aimed to explore the perceptions of Iranian Teaching English as a Foreign language (TEFL) university teachers and students on the implementation of online assessment (OLA) during the pandemic. As such, 212 TEFL teachers and 325 postgraduate students completed the teachers’/students’ views towards implementing online assessment survey developed by the researchers. The findings of the current study suggest that on the whole, both Iranian EFL teachers and students favor the web-based form of assessment. In addition, there were similarities in perceptions of the teachers and students regarding familiarity with OLA and its feasibility, OLA contribution in improving learning and feedback processes, and the worth and value of implementing OLA. However, the findings also highlight differences in the inadequacies of OLA.