Teachers’ Perceptions of Digital Assessment Tools & Their Impact on Classroom Practices in Private Secondary Schools of Lahore

Abstract

Digital technologies have highlighted a new paradigm for the way students are assessed in innovative, efficient and interactive ways. A digital assessment system, such as Google Forms, Kahoot, Quizizz, or Learning Management Systems (LMS), offers some interesting properties that all schools are beginning to use for assessment: instant feedback, self-marked assessment, and data-driven insights. The purpose of this study was to assess the perception of the teachers about digital assessment tools and to find out how it impacts their classroom practices that were located in private secondary schools of Lahore. This study used a qualitative research design paradigm of interpretivist. The data for this study was obtained through semi-structured interview which was a purposive sampling of 15 teachers. The data collected was analyzed using Thematic Analysis approach (Braun and Clarke 2006). The results show that the teachers have mainly positive perceptions about the practice of Digital assessment tools and there are some benefits such as "time savings," "students’ engagement," "immediate feedback," and "productivity when monitoring student progress. It also revealed that digital assessment systems have impacted the way that assessment is done in the classroom changing from traditional assessment to continuous assessment, and that the data from digital assessment systems have affected the teaching and learning methodology for making effective decisions. But some problems were found such as internet connectivity, no devices, technical problems, and academic integrity concerns. In addition, the study identified the need for professional growth and institutional support to become more successful with the successful implementation of digital assessment practices. The results have implications for teachers, leaders and policy makers, and contribute to the literature on technology-based assessment.