Investigating Teachers’ Practices and Challenges of Online Assessment during COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case Study of EFL Teachers at the Department of Letters and English Language at Belhadj Bouchaib University

Abstract

Language assessment is one of the key pillars of the educational triangle and the pedagogical activity that was affected by the shift to e-teaching- learning and blended teaching-learning posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This sudden shift urges teachers to use online assessment. However, teachers faced various psychological, social, technical, and pedagogical challenges while conducting the online assessment. Thus, this study aims to investigate teachers’ practices and main challenges of online assessment during the pandemic in an Algerian EFL context. It also seeks to explore the influence of in-service ICT training on teachers’ online assessment practices. In order to achieve these objectives and answer the research questions, this study is based on a mixed-method research design manifested through an online questionnaire addressed to thirty (30) EFL teachers at the Department of Letters and English Language at Belhadj Bouchaib University. In addition, an online interview was dedicated to an expert trainer responsible for teachers’ in-service ICT training; four (4) EFL teachers from the same department were also interviewed to enrich the findings besides conducting observation of online assessment. The results indicated that students’ academic misconduct (cheating and plagiarism) is the major challenge in online assessment. Moreover, results revealed that in service ICT training improves and positively influenc