Abstract:

The knowledge society is a phrase that implies education to position itself at the center of social development. Educational strategies, as well as modes of teaching and learning are constantly changing, with the change itself being driven by current social demands. The development of information and communication technology has taken its place within the methodological and didactic frameworks, expanding the methods and modes of teaching and learning in the process. It is precisely the importance of education that makes scientists and experts dedicate their attention to related issues. Among others, their task is to monitor social changes and find the best way for education to fulfill its purpose. Additional focus on the matter has come as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic precisely because of the changes it brought to all segments of human activity and social life. Life during the COVID-19 pandemic required changes in the education systems of countries around the world, i.e., it pressed for rapid adaptation to a new form of teaching - online teaching. This adaptation represented a great challenge not only for teachers, but for pupils and students alike. Thanks to technological innovations, during the coronavirus pandemic, many educational institutions across the globe, including those located in the Republic of Croatia, used e-learning systems and various tools for the transfer and assessment of knowledge. Adaptation to online modes of working required finding the best way to transfer information, acquire knowledge, but also to evaluate the acquired knowledge. In this paper, the subject of research are e-learning systems and digital tools that were used for online teaching, communication between teachers and students and testing at the University of Zadar (Croatia). The research was conducted using a survey method among undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Zadar who took written and oral exams via the e-learning system or some other digital tools such as Zoom, Skype, Google Meet and analogous apps during the 2020 lockdown. With regard to the challenges with COVID, the aim of the paper is to investigate the experiences and problems students faced during the online knowledge test during the lockdown in 2020, in order to take into account the student dimension of online learning in possible future situations and all in order to improve the educational process in accordance with the development of information and communication technology and possible educational challenges in the future. Special attention in the work is focused on the self-assessment of students' IT and digital literacy, challenges faced by students during online knowledge testing, technical difficulties of students when transitioning to online knowledge testing, advantages and disadvantages of online exams and suggestions for improving online knowledge testing in the future.

Keywords:

e-learning system, COVID-19, students, knowledge assessment, Croatia.