Trust-based e-assessment systems are increasingly important in the digital age for both academic institutions and students, including students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Recent literature indicates a growing number of studies about e-authentication and authorship verification for quality assurance with more flexible modes of assessment. Yet understanding the acceptability of e-authentication systems among SEND students is underexplored. This study examines SEND students’ views about the use of e-authentication systems, including perceived advantages and disadvantages of new technology-enhanced assessment. This study aims to shed light on this area by examining the attitudes of 267 SEND students who used, or were aware of, an authentication system known as adaptive trust-based e-assessment system for learning (TeSLA). The results suggest a broadly positive acceptability of these e-authentication technologies by SEND students. In the view of these students, the key advantages are the ability of proving the originality of their work, and trust-based e-assessment results; the key disadvantages are the possibility that the technology might not work or present wrong outputs in terms of cheating.

中文翻译：

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高等教育研究中电子认证的可接受性：有特殊教育需要和残疾学生的观点

在数字时代，基于信任的电子评估系统对学术机构和学生（包括有特殊教育需求和残疾 (SEND) 的学生）来说越来越重要。最近的文献表明，越来越多的关于电子认证和作者身份验证的研究以更灵活的评估模式进行质量保证。然而，对 SEND 学生对电子身份验证系统的接受程度的了解尚未得到充分探索。本研究调查了 SEND 学生对使用电子认证系统的看法，包括新技术增强评估的优势和劣势。本研究旨在通过检查 267 名 SEND 学生的态度来阐明这一领域，这些学生使用或知道一种名为自适应信任学习电子评估系统 (TeSLA) 的身份验证系统。结果表明 SEND 学生对这些电子身份验证技术的接受度普遍积极。在这些学生看来，主要优势是能够证明其作品的原创性，以及基于信任的电子评估结果；主要缺点是该技术可能无法正常工作或在作弊方面出现错误输出。