Effectiveness of Assessment Tools Used in Open Distance Learning: Perspective of Faculty Members

Abstract

Assessment is a significant part of an education system that evaluates students' learning. Assessment tools have been a topic of interest for educationists and academicians since the beginning of the education system, and it is still advancing every day. Therefore, this research explored the perceived effectiveness of assessment tools currently being used in open and distance learning (ODL) institutions. This research has adopted the interpretivist paradigm and used a qualitative approach. Purposive sampling was used to select the participants; the criteria to select a participant was the teacher serving in an ODL institute full-time, with a minimum experience of one year. Data have been collected from 16 faculty members of an ODL institution. A semi-structured interview guide was used to collect the data. The findings of the study highlighted the perceptions of the faculty members regarding the effectiveness of various assessment tools used to evaluate the learning of ODL students. The study's results highlighted the issues associated with the use of multiple assessment tools in ODL settings. It has been recommended that the current AI era has impacted the effectiveness of various assessment tools, and academicians are suugested to adopt more interactive assessments.