Attitudes of EFL Iraqi University Teachers toward Online Assessment before, during, and after COVID -19 Pandemic

Abstract

The global pandemic of the coronavirus illness 2019 (COVID-19) has had a disastrous effect on every industry. Furthermore, the education system is still suffering from the terrible consequences of lockdown. It caused colleges and universities to close for an extended period of time; as a result, traditional education quickly gave way to online instruction. Despite the rapid shift to online learning and assessment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is limited understanding of how EFL (English as a Foreign Language) university teachers in Iraq perceive online assessments at different stages of the pandemic. Therefore, the present study aims to explore EFL Iraqi teachers’ attitudes toward using online assessment at pre, during, post pandemic. The researchers adopted a questionnaire which divided into three parts each part contains (10) items, in order to enhance the study, the researchers used semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions which contains (5) items. The items of the questionnaire and interview designed specifically in order to study how teachers’ attitudes towards online assessments evolved over time, identifying key factors influencing their perceptions and acceptance. The data was collected from Iraqi EFL teachers chosen randomly from different universities. The data are analyzed by using descriptive statistics of SPSS 26 software program. According to the results, the researchers present some recommendations.