Designing a Conceptual Model for Academic Assessment in Open and Distance Universities

Subject Areas : Distance Education

Fahimeh Alsadat  Haghighi ¹ (Ph.D. in Distance Learning, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran)
Mehran  Farajollahi ² (Associate Professor of Educational Sciences Department, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran)

Received: 2014-04-14 Accepted : 2014-10-17 Published : 2015-05-01

Keywords: model, Higher Education, test, academic assessment, open and distance university,

Abstract :

The aim of the study was to design and validate a conceptual model for open and distance universities academic tests. The research adopted a quantitative (descriptive survey) and qualitative approach to conduct the study. The statistical population included all faculty members of Payame Noor University in the academic year 2013-14 in Iran. The sample size was 286 people based on Krejcie and Morgan table who were randomly selected and the qualitative sample comprised 7 experts in test developing who were selected by snowball method. A researcher-made questionnaire with 58 questions with the reliability of 0.964 and semi organized interview served as the research tools. The five factors of philosophy, objective, design, implementation and result analysis along with the triple indices of each element were analyzed through descriptive statistics and one sample t-test. The results showed that the element of philosophy had the average at the criterion level (9), and the other elements had averages higher than the criterion and all 5 elements were meaningful at 99%. Indicators of development prospects, philosophy of higher education and distance and open university had the average at the criterion level (3.6) which were significant at 99%, the indexes of the University's goals, departments’ course and faculty objectives had average higher than criterion and were significant at 99%, the assessment rules index and test quality in test design had averages above the criterion and were significant at 99%, but the standard index of question developing had the average similar to the criterion which was not significant. The policy and implementation in implementation stage had the average at the criterion which was significant at 99% and the implementation had the average higher than the criterion and was significant at 95%. Two indices of correction and grading in assessment criterion had the average close to the criterion and the averages of analysis and feedback were higher than the criterion and were significant at 99%. The results showed that this model can be used in the design of open and distance university exams.

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