Öğretmen ve öğrencilerin görüşleriyle yabancı dil öğretimde çevrimiçi sınav uygulamalarının incelenmesi: Bir durum çalışması

This study aims at examining online exam practices in foreign language education from the perspective of instructors and students and presenting a clear-cut picture of the current situation. The research was prepared in accordance with the case study design, one of the qualitative research methods. The study group of the research consists of 134 preparatory class students and 26 instructors in the preparatory school of a private university located in a province in Southern Turkey. The data of the study were collected using online data collection tools due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which started in December 2019 and is still in effect. For this purpose, separate opinion forms were prepared for both students and instructors. To analyse the collected data, quantitative descriptive and comparison analyses and content analysis technique were used. As a result of the analysis of the data, it was determined that the success levels of the students in face-to-face exams did not show a statistically significant difference according to gender, English level or computer skills, but there was an inverse relationship according to their age. While the stress levels of the students in face-to-face exams did not show a statistically significant difference according to age, English level or computer skills, they differed significantly in favour of male students according to their gender. Students' success in online exams did not show a statistically significant difference according to their gender and age; however, there was a significant difference in direct proportion to their English level and computer skills. While the stress levels of the students in online exams did not show a statistically significant difference according to their age or English level, they differed significantly according to their gender and computer skills. Accordingly, female students had greater stress levels than males; It was determined that students with low computer skills had a higher stress level than students with higher computer skills. As a result of the analysis of the qualitative data collected within the scope of the research, it was found that the students stated the features such as creating a less stressful exam atmosphere, flexibility of the place and better concentration were the advantages of online exams; connection/technical problems and the stress associated with these problems, the exam environment being suitable for cheating, adaptation/concentration problems, finding a suitable place and difficulties in communication were the disadvantages of online exams. It was determined that the main problems faced by students in online exams were connection problems/technical problems and sound/noise problems. Students stated 18 factors that needed to be changed/improved regarding online exams, and the most mentioned factors were extending the exam duration and removing the rule to keep the microphone and camera on during the exam. In addition, 11 reasons were put forward as to why additional time should be given in online exams, the most frequently mentioned reason was the difference in connection and technical features. While most of the students stated that they showed their real performance in online exams, some students also stated that they performed better. The skill that students had the most difficulty in online exams was listening. They stated that if they had a choice, they would want online exams, and as a skill, they would most likely want speaking skills to continue to be measured online. As a result of the examination of the data of the instructors, it was seen that most of the instructors thought that the online exam practices in their institutions were practical by citing reasons such as preventing cheating, consisting of open-ended questions, being reliable and sufficient in current conditions. In addition, they stated that they had problems in four subjects: cheating issues, connection problems, difficulty in proctoring, and grading problems in online exams. The instructors also noted that online exams had advantages such as being less stressful, eco-friendly, easy to grade, flexible in terms of place, time-saving, preparing students for future professions and encouraging autonomous learning. They stated that the disadvantages of these exams were an environment conducive to cheating, inadequacy of social interaction, inability to measure students' skills, being time-consuming and tiring, stressful for both parties, constraint of using screen and technical problems. For alternative models/techniques for online testing, they made the following suggestions: project/portfolio evaluation could be conducted, students' computers could be blocked from opening different pages/browsers during the exam, plagiarism detection programs could be used, reliable electronic proctoring systems could be utilized, mirrors could be sent to students, different question types could be used, and these questions could be presented by shuffling.