Academic Staff Perceptions on Students’ Traditional Assessment Transformations towards Online Evaluation during COVID-19 Pandemic in Higher Education: A Preliminary Study from Two Diverse Cultures

COVID-19 has changed the dynamic of all societies and led to the closing of all educational organizations around the world. To overcome the sudden situation, some educational organizations used online instruction which came with several challenges such as student retention, change in learner-tutor relationship, and timing and nature of the lesson warrant exploration. The purpose of the current research paper is to investigate these challenges pertaining to student assessment transformation during COVID-19 from the perceptions of academic staff located in two diverse different cultures. This is an exploratory study which uses a quantitative survey tool that recruited lecturers from public and private universities in Bahrain and Ukraine. The main findings revealed some inadequacy in online assessment during COVID-19, increased workload and teaching and preparation time on behalf of the teachers. Students' participation proved to be a challenge that require further examination, as contrasting results between the two contexts were found. The findings would be a great use to educational administrators and strategy makers, academic authorities, higher education administration, and virtual pedagogic developers. Potential pedagogical and research implications are discussed.