This paper aims to investigate the major challenges faced and lessons learned during the unplanned transition to online examinations (OE) at a traditional university following the COVID-19 pandemic.
This exploratory study involved two distinct samples (110 students and 30 instructors) drawn from a large public university and triangulated the qualitative and quantitative data to analyze how the university navigated the unplanned transition to OE.
The university faced several challenges related to a lack of proper institutional infrastructure, non-familiarity of the stakeholders with OE, lack of effective communication, limited student access to technology resources because of socio-economic impediments and academic integrity issues.
Short- and medium-term recommendations are proposed to enable continuity of teaching and learning in future emergency situations, including the establishment of technology-enabled exam centers, as well as strategies to assure instructor readiness for OE, academic integrity among students and the validity of the evaluation procedure for future OE.
This study shows how the unplanned transition to OE in a public university exposed new challenges for conducting OE, particularly in resource challenged emerging countries, where full integration of OE was a new experience and prior knowledge of potential issues was lacking.
