Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the implementation of online assessments at an unprecedented pace. The pandemic
required most higher education institutions worldwide to implement online assessments almost overnight. The study
aimed to gain an understanding of auditing students’ perceptions of online assessments and e-proctoring systems during the pandemic. A web-based questionnaire was administered to postgraduate auditing students who had taken part
in remote online assessments at an open distance and e-learning university in South Africa, invigilated via e-proctoring
software, which was introduced in the 2020 academic year. A total of 238 students participated in the study. Factor
analysis, using principal component factor analysis, was performed to identify the factors or components that possibly
caused the variation in these auditing students’ perceptions of online assessments and e-proctoring. Varimax with Kaiser
normalisation was used as a rotation method. This process revealed five main components that explained variations
in participants’ perceptions, namely: Component 1—emotions (assessments), appropriateness (assessments), fairness
(assessments), monetary aspects, and time; Component 2—practical IT matters, academic integrity (e-proctoring) and
cheating (e-proctoring); Component 3—practical IT matters (e-proctoring) and emotions (e-proctoring); Component
4—practical IT matters (assessments) and time (assessments); and Component 5—cheating (assessments). Implications
of the findings for educators are offered, along with recommendations for future research.
