Learning and performance evaluation in distance higher education: a case study during the Covid-19 pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused disruption in students’ education and imposed numerous and unprecedented challenges on the educational systems all over the world turning the traditional learning processes into online distance education. The new context has raised the question of how to evaluate students’ learning and competences in distance education environments as effectively as possible. To maintain high quality standards of higher education, it is undoubtedly necessary to investigate through which tools the lecturers evaluate both the processes and the products of learning gained in online education. This study has been carried out at the University of Florence, with a sample of 60 lecturers, during the first period of pandemic. It has a twofold aim: (1) investigating lecturers’ beliefs on assessment and evaluation in distance higher education and (2) comparing online assessment techniques and tools with those used in face-toface classroom practices. The case study uses mixed methods and proposes data collected through an online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews analyzed with a quanti-qualitative approach. It pointed out the main problems the study group faced in evaluating students’ learning and performance in remote university education and suggested, at the same time, possible solutions to tackle learning and performance evaluation processes through alternative assessment methods.