EFL TEACHERS AND STUDENTS’ CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTING ONLINE ASSESSMENTS IN ENGLISH CLASSROOM IN SMP N 9 SEMARANG ACADEMIC YEAR 2021/2022

Meiantoni, Dicky. 2021. EFL Teacehers and Students’ Challenges in
Implementing Online Assessments in English Clasroom in SMP N 9
Semarang in the Academic Year 2021-2022. Final Project, English Study
Program, Faculty of Language and Arts Education, University of PGRI
Semarang. Advisor 1: Dr. Wiyaka., Advisor 2: Entika Fani Prastikawati,
S.Pd.,M.Pd.
Keyword: Online Assessment, English teaching and learning, EFL teachers and
students’ challenges.
The rise of cases of the spread of Covid-19 has caused changes in the education
system. One of the changes is the assessment process carried out by the teacher in
his class, especially in the English class. Online assessment is a demand in the
teaching and learning process. In the context of teaching, English teachers are
required to provide online assessments that suit the needs of students. Online
assessment practices need to be researched to find out whether they are running
well or not. In line with this case, this study describes the practice of online
assessment and the challenges faced by EFL teachers and students as well as ways
to solve these challenges. By conducting a descriptive qualitative research
accompanied by questionnaire data, the authors observed the practice of online
assessment in teaching English in a junior high school in Semarang. There were
three English teachers who participated in this study as well as students from the
three classes taught by the three teachers. To obtain the data, the writer used
observation and semi-structured interviews as well as a close questionnaire as data
collection instruments. After the data is collected, then analyzed, processed using
SPSS and interpreted descriptively. The findings show that English teachers apply
several online assessment tools such as Google Classroom, What's App, Google
Form, and Zoom in their online assessment practice during the teaching and
learning process of English. During the online assessment, EFL teachers
encountered several challenges such as internet connection, different levels of
student intelligence, low student motivation, and lack of computer skills of EFL
teachers. In addition, students also experienced several challenges during the
online assessment, some of the challenges faced by students such as feeling
nervous when conducting online assessments, spending more time studying
English, internet connection, and problems related to each student. The findings of
this study imply that online assessment practices need to be evaluated to have a
better implementation. Furthermore, the computer skills of EFL teachers need to
be improved to realize exemplary online assessment practices in English language
teaching and learning.