Benefits and downsides of e-assessment in mathematics in higher education

Assessment is one of the central components of a curriculum and guides students' learning. E- assessment involves the use of ICT to present and deliver assessment tasks, receive and record students' answers, as well as to provide feedback to students. E-assessment has been used considerably more in many higher education institutions since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and therefore our aim is to explore the specifities of e-assessment in mathematics. We will present the benefits and downsides of e- assessment in mathematics in higher education. Our study focused on students' perspectives on e- assessment supported by a Learning Management System (LMS) in mathematics courses. It incorporated 631 students' responses to questionnaires conducted three times and it lasted for one academic year. We used descriptive statistics for close-ended questions and qualitative analysis for open-ended questions. The students' perspectives on e- assessment were generally positive. The students appreciated the student-centered approach based on sound pedagogical alignment of all teaching and learning elements with assessment. However, they found it important that technology should not distract them during assessment tasks. Finally, they did not find that there was more cheating and plagiarism in e- assessment in comparison to on-campus face-to-face assessments.