Chapter 1
1.1. Research Background
here there has to be a sequence starting from education to e-assessment to system enablers to system risks and threat for the whole section
Mention gulf council countries (GCC )into the introduction

Educators constantly strive to introduce new concepts and practices that enhance student testing and learning experience. Managing assessments via technological platforms, i.e. electronic assessments (e-assessment), presents one of such innovative approaches that facilitate evaluations of learning objectives and outcomes (Appiah & Tonder, 2018). These platforms electronically create, distribute, and assess different tests using instant digital marking techniques that increase test-taking efficiency and accuracy. Research conducted delineating teacher feedback predominantly suggests that technology is the key to constructive testing in modern age (Gibbons & D’Souza, 2018; Ketab et al., 2016). The emergence of e-assessment in education sector has been an ongoing development since the late 1990s (Winkley, 2010). Digitizing assessment processes leads to the development of new tools and applications as well as opportunities of handling exams differently (Egarter, Mutschler, Tekian, Norcini, & Brass, 2020). E-assessments increase the convenience of student and enhances the accuracy of marking standards – a stance supported by 88% of students (Alruwais et al., 2018). Research observes that the evolution of ICT is “giving rise to new competence needs” (Redecker and Johannessen 2013) and this demand necessitates departure from traditional formative and summative assessment models. Thus, e-assessment is becoming the norm in higher education, according to authors like Huda, Kabir, and Siddiq (2020).

Every country counts on education to advance their modernization, progress, equity, and equality. Thus, OECD governments increased average expenditures per student by over 17% between 2005 and 2013 (ICT) (OECD, 2016).Add a figure presenting this fact from OECD. Amidst the disruptive distance education services enabled by the internet since the 1990s, investment in education information systems has been a priority to facilitate innovative practice and foster personalized teaching and learning (Gonza´lez-Sancho & Vincent-Lancrin, 2016; Estelami, 2017; Inayatullah, 2017). The educational sector is undergoing disruptive innovation and catalytic change in response to rapid advancements in information and communication technologies (ICTs) (Hilmi, 2016; Yadav, 2018). Yeh and Walter (2016) show that educational institutions are under unrelenting pressure to demonstrate their value. For instance, their libraries are no longer the realm of academic information seeking as web resources become the first step in information rather than using library materials. The pressing concern is that schools have recorded limited or no improvements in productivity and efficiency, unlike other sectors (OECD, 2016; Mominó & Carrere, 2016). Under pressure to show their value, they require to go beyond adopting information technology (IT) to developing information systems to enable them to innovate and maintain their worth in the society (Zaman & Fielt, 2016). Unless education institutions assume a leading role in advancing and embracing disruptive innovation milieu, they risk becoming moribund.

Despite the potential presented by e-assessment, Mellar, Peytcheva-Forsyth, Kocdar, Karadeniz, and Yovkova (2018) acknowledge that teachers consider technology as an element to use in conjunction with other approaches rather than a primary means of addressing assessment concerns. For them, e-assessment poses a threat to the traditional assessment approaches. As Blanco and Ginovart (2012) noted, e-assessment was proving to be a consistent alternative for formative and continuous tests. However, such is not a guarantee for adoption since there are concerns that e-assessment does not provide sufficient security over malicious acts and poses technological and behaviour risks (Dessai & Kamat, 2018). As institutions introduce e-assessment system innovations, the perceived threats may dominate the perceptions that teachers have regarding e-assessment, which is likely to significantly influence adoption as those perceiving the e-assessment service system as vulnerable are the same ones expected to use them (Hameed & Arachchilage, 2019).

Information system (IS) development projects are highly prone to threats, and the same reflects in the implementation of e-assessment service systems (Jiang & Klein, 2001; Benlian & Hess, 2011). The integrated and web-based nature of e-assessment exposes individuals to various threats and attacks (Kiennert et al., 2017). Perceived susceptibility can motivate users to avoid threats likely to result from e-assessment (Liang & Xue, 2010). As Kuppers, Eifert, Politze, and Schroeder (2018) observe, the concern over these threats is that they fuel preconceptions that drive individuals to reluctant position and potentially hinder successful adoption of e-assessment. As Liang and Xue (2010) noted, threats facing IS development originate from technology and human aspects of security. According to Benlian and Hess (2011), performance is a major factor affecting the perceived risk of a system, and this is likely to reflect in e-assessment systems. Furthermore, the security of e-assessment is pertinent issue in determining the threat perceptions that users have regarding e-assessment system (Liang & Xue, 2010). User security behaviours and technological risks in form of malicious IT fuel the perceived susceptibility and severity of e-assessment system (Liang & Xue, 2010). While the technology risks can be controlled with proper strategies to avoid influence on system success, behavioural risks are more influential and critical to system success because their unpredictability makes them difficult to eradicate fully (Jiang, Klein, & Discenza, 2001). From Liang and Xue (2010), safeguard effectiveness, safeguard cost, and self-efficacy were found to influence perceived threat of e-assessment innovation. The perceived susceptibility due to e-assessment becomes a threat as it discourages adoption (Khlifi, 2020). The perceived threat of e-assessment limits the motivation to adopt e-assessment. Any change in the way assessments are undertaken is likely to elicit different perspectives from teachers, learners, and institutions (Mellar, Peytcheva-Forsyth, Kocdar, Karadeniz, & Yovkova, 2018). Changes are expected to enhance the perceived threat of e-assessment innovation, which would then spark avoidance motivation. In such contexts, the negative attitudes that teachers develop regarding e-assessment innovation are affected by affective and cognitive reactions to determine the avoidance behaviours that they exhibit. Technical support and training needs have mediating impacts on the impact that the avoidance behaviour have on the intention to increase the level of e-assessment innovation.

Here its written as variables and their relations to each other. While it supposed to be written as a regular paragraph relating e-assessment to system enablers then to risks and threats
1.2. Research Motivation and Problem Statement
(check this paragraph if its written properly and if its presented well as motivation and problem statement re-write it in a way that motivation can be readable and state the problem properly.)
Mention gulf council countries (GCC )into the problem statement
The selection of adequate technologies should be dictated by the needs of the curriculum and learning outcomes, the options available pertaining to e-assessments are becoming increasingly popular among teachers (Mellar et al., 2018). In addition to providing prompt results and instant feedback to the students, conducting examinations has become much simpler for educators due to the widespread use of e-assessments. Besides eliminating the time and place constraints, technologically-driven testing can make examinations fun and interactive for students, resulting in a reduction in stress levels (Aljohany et al., 2018). Noisy classrooms can lead to distractions, whereas online testing allows the student to work in a quiet and comfortable environment (Küppers & Schroeder, 2016; Castillo et al., 2015). Since integrated use of intelligent ICTs is now an integral element of 21st century higher education (Yankovskaya et al. 2016; El Mowafy, Kuhn, and snow 2013), universities are increasingly willing to incorporate e-assessment as part of regular studies. Sustained optimism exhibits that the solution to risks accompanying technology use lies in exploring them and devising how to solve them (Nagandla, Sulaiha, & Nalliah, 2018; Neumann, Anthony, Erazo, & Neumann, 2019; Macgilchrist, 2019). Multiple reasons favour the adoption of e-assessments, and they range from their superior accessibility, adaptability, and timesaving (Küppers, Kerber, Meyer, & Schroeder, 2017; Baró‐Solé et al., 2018; Okada et al., 2019). E-assessment is the application of information technology (IT) to conduct assessment (Singh & de Villiers, 2017). E-assessment has been one of the areas in which innovations are expected to significantly affect the education sector but a notable portion of users remains uncomfortable with it (Huda, Kabir, & Siddiq, 2020). Despite the potential presented by e-assessment, Mellar, Peytcheva-Forsyth, Kocdar, Karadeniz, and Yovkova (2018) acknowledge that teachers consider technology as an element to use in conjunction with other approaches rather than a primary means of addressing assessment concerns. For them, e-assessment poses a threat to the traditional assessment approaches. A fact that goes beyond demonstrating the entrenchment of ICT in education to reveal that education today is also dependent on technology. Although the education sector stands to avail from the complete adoption of e-assessments. The impetus is therefore on research to provide reviews that identify and evaluate different e-assessment systems to aid use and continuance in education. There is a need to examine enablers of e-assessments and avenues for harnessing these factors, considering studies such as Noguera, Guerrero-Roldán, Peytcheva-Forsyth, and Yovkova (2018) argue that the benefits of e-assessments often outweigh costs. The need to shed light on the enablers of e-assessment. Since evolutions in learning also manifest in assessment models, there needs to be analysis and awareness of e-assessment enablers and challenges for supporting integration and use in education. Insights on these enablers serves the observing of associated technological threat and risk affecting the use of e-assessment in educational sector.

1.3. Research significance and contribution
(check this paragraph if its written properly and if its presented well as Research significance and contribution)
Here the professor mention for the significant we need to satisfy 3 people (first, academia, second, practitioner and educators and third, the policy maker) read and organize the paragraph below accordingly

Introducing fundamental changes and innovations to the education sector is always challenging. Apart from technology assessment, advances in assessment designs must be based on the awareness the dynamic testing methods depend on advances realized in cognitive science and psychometrics to understand the processes that underlie the tasks under scrutiny and make the right interpretations (Martin, 2008). Furthermore, achieving success in developing new advances in education proves challenging because of the difficulty in integrating ICT across the sector, and most of the optimistic claims regarding the contribution of e-assessment are usually not grounded on evidence (Ridgway & McCusker, 2008).

For researcher, this research is unique in capturing academician perspectives on e-assessments enablers. Although, e-assessment is not a new technology, (Huda, Kabir, and Siddiq 2020), the viability of e-assessment remains a concern with most studies focusing on potential barriers. However, insights on enablers from the academician perspectives adds to evaluations and debates on e-assessment as a complementary activity for course delivery. This research argues that such insights has the potential to improve student performance and activate cognitive processes in education settings. Recent studies argue that successful e-assessment application has the potential to ease teachers’ workload and promote autonomous work, increase the participation of students in their learning process, provide teaching innovation in content assessment, and promote collaboration among instructors through joint creation and application of an e-assessment tool (Martínez, Mon, Álvarez, Fueyo, & Dobarro, 2020). Yet, the nature of enablers for successful e-assessment application remains largely unexplored methodically in literature.

For managers, this research is relevant for advancing ICT-driven forms of learning (e.g. eLearning, online learning and distance learning) because e-assessment continues to grow in popularity as a technological solution for educational challenges. In a survey to test students’ perception of e-assessment, Rajasekharan and Ashish (2017) found out that learners had a positive attitude towards e-assessment, with the results justifying the view that it would be feasible to introduce e-exams where a high-stakes assessment remains necessary. Fontanillas, Carbonell, and Catasús (2016) also make the case for e-assessment, albeit from a different angle, stating that since eLearning is inevitable and distance learning has been a mainstream aspect of technology-driven learning for many years, e-assessment is long overdue. Overall, with the advent of ICT and digitization in higher education, e-assessment has become integral element to higher education in modern times (Yankovskaya et al. 2016; Mowafy, Kuhn, and Snow 2013) with practical use for blended learning (e.g. flip teaching and collaborative learning). Alruwais, Wills, and Wald (2018) further this argument and contend that ICT played a key role in improving learning processes for many years but the ICT need is now more than ever in the wake of increasing student numbers and the limitation of placement. These claims provide evidence of intensive e-assessment discourse in literature and invoke questions on the nature of e-assessment enablers for sustaining and improving higher education.

As well, it focus on the enablers of e-assessment, which is a field that has not had direct and in-depth focus yet. As evidenced in the review of literature, most of the research on e-assessment explores e-assessment within other models such as its version of the diagnostics, formative, or summative assessment models. However, there is little evidence on the systematic facilitators of successful e-assessment. Similarly, there are relatively few publications on the attitudinal and behavioral enablers of e-assessment even though authors like Alruwais, Wills, and Wald (2016) have made attempts to study it. To that effect, this study makes a notable contribution to current research by addressing this gap in the literature

This research contribute to educational technology knowledge. Furtherly, research focuses to establish mechanisms that can be adopted to ease the integration of e-assessment innovations. Close monitoring of e-assessment implementation is essential to increase the likelihood of successful integration (Mellar, Peytcheva-Forsyth, Kocdar, Karadeniz, & Yovkova, 2018). The uniqueness of this study is the realization that risks and avoidance factors limiting the adoption of e-assessments warrant a research study. At a time when opinions regarding e-assessments differ (Babo & Suhonen, 2018; Alsadoon, 2017; Alruwais, Wills, & Wald, 2018), this research promises to offer unique insights regarding e-assessment in a manner that would guide in ascertaining the prospect of e-assessment replacing traditional assessment approaches. The study is based from the acknowledgement that it is imperative to discuss the use of e-assessment in education institutions as the integration of ICTs become ubiquitous.

1.4. Research Aim, Objectives and Questions
This section demonstrate research aim, objectives and questions that derived from systematic literature review, interviews and survey that focuses on factors that enabled e-assessment
Aim
The aim of the research is to explore the e-assessment threat and risk factors for the deployment of e-assessment innovation.

Objectives
For the purpose of finding answers of the research questions and attaining the aim of this research, objectives have been formed. These objectives will contribute in supporting the researcher to have an insight toward research direction and have path to achieve the research aim. The objectives of the research are to:

Check the objectives and amend if needed.

1. Review the literature of e-assessment in education.
2. Explore the potential strategies for applying e-assessment with learners from the perspective of universities academics.
3. identify priorities that harness strategies for enhanced e-assessment use in higher education.
4. Propose e-assessment conceptual framework for the GCC higher education sector
5. Propose a policy for using e-assessment in GCC

Questions
To achieve the aim, the following research questions were raised:

Amend based on the objectives
RQ1: What are the main concepts in research studies for e-assessments ?
RQ2: How do educational administrators manage e-assessment?
RQ3:What are the main enablers factors, of using e-assessment, from the perspective of academic staff?
RQ4:How can policy makers influences the enablers factors of e-assessment?

1.5. Research Context and Concepts
Concepts
Write definitions with references for each from a highly ranked source
E-assessment:
System Enabler:
System Risk:
Innovation:
Technological threat
Threat of technology avoidance

Context
This research seeks to examine the potential of e-assessment as a disruptive technology in the education sector in GCC. The importance of this study is the interest it can spark in a region where few education research initiatives have been on disruptive information systems despite the considerable digitization underway (Göll & Zwiers, 2018; PwC, 2019; Balouza, 2019). Its significance is in revealing the potential contributions that GCC nations can make as they try to diversify their economies and establish alliances that will enable them to lead in technological innovation (Langendorf, 2020; Tok, 2020; Lukonga, 2020). The trend is bound to continue as ubiquitous computing devices and growing internet connectivity facilitate the development of a broad range of disruptive technologies (Mahmoud & Zhang, 2018). However, enhancing innovation capabilities would require education institutions to embrace agility to facilitate innovation and capability to adapt (Mammassis & Schmid, 2018).

In previous studies on the subject will undergo an evaluation to give context to the concept and its use, especially in the education sector. In addition, it will look at the general elements that comprise this technology and delve into its various forms. In this context, the use of a systematic approach will ascertain the feasibility of the project by incorporating recurring steps and the evaluation of the findings. In this respect, the review provides a foundation that offers insight on e-assessments and their integration in learning in contemporary education (Azevedo et al., 2019). There is a need to comprehensively explain what e-assessment enablers are in the context of higher education, specifically from the point of view of academics from different educational institution among Gulf Council Countries (GCC), which is critical in information institutional and policy-level actions for e-assessment. It has been established that e-learning is an integral element of education today, which means that e-assessment is well on its way to becoming a mainstream testing model and probably even be the main model in the future.