Challenges and effectiveness of virtual examination in National Open University of Nigeria: A multi-centre analysis

Virtual examination is becoming an essential part of improving the educational experience in open and distance learning institutions around the globe in recent years, with the goal of catering for the learning preferences of digital natives. This study identified the various challenges confronting virtual examination and investigated the effectiveness of virtual examination across all the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) study centres in the country. The study is descriptive with population of learners across all NOUN study centres in the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory in Nigeria as the population with a sample size of 600 selected across the six geo-political zones in Nigeria using multi-stage sampling procedure. The study found unavailability of internet connectivity as the most critical issue at the NOUN, followed by inadequate computers, low motivation for virtual examination, malfunctioning computers, lecturers’ technological skills problems, and ethical issues respectively. The study also found that virtual examination was ineffective in NOUN with a ground mean of 1.98 which was lower than the 2.5 criterion point. Inadequate empirical studies on the variables of this study in public and private open universities in Nigeria. It was not easy getting the respondents at the study centres because of the flexibility of the learning mode. Related studies could be conducted on the variables of this study in private open university in the country.