Use of technology-based assessments: a systematic review covering over 30 countries

ABSTRACT

The widespread adoption of technology-based assessments during the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated concerns about the digital divide, given global disparities in digital access, connectivity, and coping strategies. This systematic review was intended to assess how the use of technology-based assessments has affected the education system’s functioning in pre-college education, compared to traditional assessments. It covered 34 countries from 34 full-text English sources in 2018–2022. A total of 12 assumptions were tested, corresponding to six hypotheses about the learning, educating, and management facets associated with the use of technology-based assessments. Our findings revealed mixed evidence about technology-based assessments in reducing cheating, enhancing learning, supporting monitoring, improving instruction, and reducing non-teaching workload. However, strong evidence supported the assumptions that technology-based assessments improve measurement precision, interpretability, engagement, interaction, and teacher-parent communication. Limited but positive evidence supported the assumptions that technology-based assessments may reduce the cost and time of test administration.

KEYWORDS:

• Educational technology
• systematic review
• technology-based assessment
• international context

Acknowledgments

The authors express sincere appreciation and gratitude to Dr. Priyadarshani Joshi (Senior Research Analyst, GEM Report, UNESCO) and Dr. Patrick Montjouridès (Senior Program Specialist, UNESCO), who offered considerable feedback on the first draft of this paper. Also, the authors thank Dr. Jinming Zhang (Professor), Ms. Jing Zhang, and Mr. Yingbin Zhang (doctoral students) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for their support, and the journal editor and anonymous reviewers whose comments led to a significant improvement of this article. Any remaining errors or omissions are the authors’ own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Geolocation

Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, Vietnam.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available, but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under licence for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/0969594X.2023.2270181.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, UNESCO in Paris, France (Contract No. 4500461800). A previous version of this paper was prepared as background research for Global Education Monitoring Report 2023 on Technology in Education : A tool on whose terms. The comments and conceptualisations presented here represent those of the authors and should not be attributed to any individual or organisation.

Notes on contributors

Dandan Chen

Dandan Chen works as an Associate Research Scientist at Pearson in the United States. She has a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, specialising in psychometrics. She has received funding from UNESCO (2022, 2017), National Science Foundation (2018-2020), and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (2016), and has authored systematic reviews and participated in reports for the World Bank, the Education Commission, UNESCO, and UNFPA.

Amos Jeng

Amos Jeng is a doctoral student in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His work primarily focuses on learning-oriented interactions in educational settings. He is especially interested in understanding and improving college students’ experiences with help-seeking and help-giving in introductory STEM course settings, as well as placing these interactive behaviours in a cultural context.

Shiyu Sun

Shiyu Sun is a doctoral student in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her work investigates college students’ sense of belonging in different contextual settings. More specifically, she is interested in exploring international students’ sense of belonging in university settings and understanding how different cultural and social factors affect students’ belonging experiences.

Bradley Kaptur

Bradley Kaptur is a resident physician in radiology at HSHS Saint John’s Hospital and was a medical student at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He has previously published on healthcare utilisation patterns and geospatial disparities in healthcare access. His research interests include the utilisation of technology in medical education and assessment methods used in medical school.