By By Peremiegha Grey Bension, & Mary A. Agih (PhD)
Abstract
In the wake of the increasing shift towards online education, particularly exacerbated by global disruptions, institutions face significant challenges in maintaining academic integrity and ensuring equitable assessment practices. This paper examines the role of the educator in maintaining ethical online assessment practices in tertiary institutions. The paper commences by clarifying the concept of assessment, stating its purposes, discussing online assessment tools, ethical online assessment and the challenges in maintaining ethical standards in online assessment in tertiary institutions. It was observed that, the educator has a crucial role to play in ensuring ethical online assessment standards which includes; ensuring academic integrity, promoting fairness and equity, developing assessment strategies that reflect true learning outcomes amongst others. It is the view of the authors that tertiary institutions should develop and enforce clear and comprehensive guidelines on ethical online assessment practices. These policies should clearly outline the expectations for both educators and students, detailing what constitutes ethical behavior and the consequences of academic dishonesty among others will help to maintain ethical online assessment practices in tertiary institutions.
