Influence of Cyber-security Problems in Digital Assessment on Students’ Assessment Outcome: Lecturers’ Perspective

Abstract

The increasing use and continuing growth of e-Learning systems has been documented by abundant studies but, little attention has been given to the cyber-security issues in digital-assessment. In fact, there are dearth of studies on research and education about lecturers’ perspective towards the influence of cyber-security problems in digital-assessment on assessment outcome. The current investigation targeted this research gap. Thus, a descriptive survey research was conducted with 200 lecturers purposively drawn from education discipline of government owned degree awarding tertiary institutions in Anambra state, Nigeria. Instrument used for data collection was an 8-item questionnaire developed by the researchers. Descriptive as well as inferential statistics were applied in the data analysis to answer one research question and two hypotheses. Analysis was by SPSS version-23. A p-value ≤0.05 was taken as significant. The results from this study revealed that cyber-security problems in digital assessment mars negatively on students’ assessment outcome. There were significant differences on lecturers’ perspective on the influence of security problems in digital-assessment on students’ assessment outcome based on level and cadre but not on gender. Cyber-security problems in digital assessment mars negatively on students’ assessment outcome and it was significantly influenced by academic level and cadre.  Further research is needed to check the consistency of findings and to identify whether the relationship is causal.