Electronic assessment and its relationship with technology acceptance and student satisfaction

The present study investigated the relationship between technology acceptance, electronic assessment (e-assessment) methods and the satisfaction of students at Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Iran, using a descriptive-correlational design. The research population consisted of all the students (n = 14096) studying at Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman in the academic year 2021-2023. A sample of 387 students was selected using quota sampling. The data were collected using the Technology Acceptance Questionnaire (Teo, 2009) and two researcher-made satisfaction and e-assessment questionnaires, whose validity and reliability were estimated as 0.96 and 0.88, respectively. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling (SEM). The proposed model was evaluated using a two-step approach (Anderson Gerbing, 1988). The Baron and Kenny (1986) approach and Sobel’s test (1982) were used to test the mediating relationships in the proposed model and their significance. The results showed a positive and significant relationship between e-assessment and student satisfaction (β=0.78). There was also a positive and significant relationship between the degree of technology acceptance and student satisfaction (β=0.16), but no significant relationship was found between e-assessment and the degree of technology acceptance among the students (β=0.01). These findings imply that technology acceptance cannot play a mediating role in the relationship between e-assessment and student satisfaction at Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman. However, satisfaction acted as a mediating variable in the relationship between technology acceptance and the assessment method.