Exploring Faculty Members Perspective on the Implementation of Take-home assessments in Medical Education during the COVID-19 Outbreak: A Qualitative study

Background: In early 2020, due to COVID-19, public lockdowns challenged the academic community by conducting a wide range of remote exams. The current study planned to survey the faculty member s perspective on the challenges and the solution approach ahead of this sudden transmission and the feasible medical education assessments conducted in an online Take-home format. Methods: The current paper was a cross-sectional and descriptive study. The data were collected through an online interview form consisting of close-ended and open-ended questions completed by faculty members of Iran universities of medical sciences. The received data were analyzed using descriptive, inferential statistics and a thematic analysis approach through SPSS25 and MAXQDA2020 software. Results: A total of 574 medical faculty members enrolled in this survey. Midterm university exams and internal-university language tests were selected by responders as a suitable option for holding online assessments. Other summative or sensitive assessments were not eligible to use this process. Also 640 codes related to challenges and solution approaches were extracted. The significant difficulties were the problems in the executive infrastructure (124codes), and improving the implementation of online testing (84 codes) was considered the best feasible solution in faculty members’ perceptions. Conclusion: The results showed that faculty members believed high-stake tests, according to the current technical and cultural infrastructure, are not far from the mind and access. Still, there is a critical need to explore more to provide a stable and reliable online exams environment.