Facilitators and Barriers of Employing Electronic Exams as Perceived by Nursing Students and the Relation to their Satisfaction

Abstract

Context: Nowadays, during the COVID-19 pandemic, electronic exams are perceived as a fast-evolving assessment tool because of their accuracy and reliability. It provides relatively more accurate results and immediate feedback for students and instructors.

Aim: To assess facilitators and barriers of employing electronic exams as perceived by nursing students and the relation to their satisfaction.

Methods: A descriptive correlational research design was used to achieve the aim of this study. The study was conducted at the Faculty of Nursing at Benha University on 970 nursing students from the four academic years (2020/2021). They were selected using a stratified random sampling technique. Data was collected using three tools. The student perception of electronic-exams facilitators questionnaire, the student perception of electronic-exams barriers questionnaire, and the nursing students’ satisfaction assessment scale.

Results: More than half of nursing students (59.9%) had a high perception level about facilitators of electronic exams, whereas nearly two-thirds of nursing students (60.9%) had a moderate perception level about barriers to electronic exams, and 75.5% had a high satisfaction level regarding electronic exams.

Conclusion: This study concluded that more than three-quarters of students had high satisfaction. There was a positive, statistically significant correlation between total students' satisfaction with facilitators of the electronic exam and a statistically significant negative correlation with barriers to the electronic exam. The study recommends that students must receive regular, periodic in-service computer skills courses and study the factors that influence university students to embrace and use electronic exams with an online test system.