How Covid-19 has changed how we assess our students' performances differently
The spike of the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak has tremendously affected the global environment. The Malaysian government are still struggling to adopt conditions leading to a new normal in the country and the education sector is among those that has been most impacted by the pandemic. The academic calendar has been changing and even UPSR examination has also been cancelled. These situations have caused many different reactions from the society especially the parents regarding their children's academic achievement. Therefore, as teachers, we are advised to assess and evaluate our students fairly. It is important for us to consider all the factors that will affect student's performance whenever we want to make an assessment on them. Such factors like socio-economic background, attendance, limited access of internet, limited access to devices and limited access to other technologies need to be taken into consideration before such assessments will be conducted. Assessment during this pandemic has been changing drastically from having summative assessment like monthly examination on paper to online quizzes in almost accessible classes by the students. For instance, students are asked to watch a video on YouTube and answer some questions regarding the topic in online quiz platforms such as Quizziz, Kahoot or Google Form. Through these platform, students' performance are evaluated through their participation in the online activities since the marks and students' performance are automatically recorded. For those who do not have the internet access or proper gadget to be used during online classes, teachers will have to come out with other options and alternatives. For example, the alternatives that draw on students' creativity and self-potential such as story-telling. Students will be given a short text of story and they need to record themselves while reading the story. The students are encouraged to be creative in their story-telling. From this activity, it can provide rich, viable alternatives to the traditional assessment that we usually have. Working on a project also has been among the students' favourite activity since it is very practical and hands on. For example, creating a model house, model car or drawings. The assessment on their performance is taken through the video of their story-telling and presentation of the projects.