Journal of critical reviews 1394 Journal of Critical Reviews ISSN- 2394-5125 Vol 7, Issue 8, 2020 PARADIGM OF SHIFT IN ASSESSMENT: CONSTRUCTIVIST AND INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY MODEL Rohaizan Ahmad 1 , Rosimah Ahmad 2 , Mohamad Irwan Sagir 3 , Ts. Jimisiah Jaafar 4 1 Student Development, Unikl, MITEC 2 Taylor’s University, Taylor’s Business School, Taylor’s Lakeside Campus, Malaysia 3 General Studies Department, Masjid Tanah Community College 4 IIIP, UniKL, MITEC E-mail: 1 rohaizan@unikl.edu.my , 2 Rosimah.Ahmad@taylors.edu.my , 3 irwansagir@gmail.com , 4 jimisiah@unikl.edu.my Received: 20.05.2020 Revised: 17.06.2020 Accepted: 06.07.2020 Abstract The essence of Section 15 of Malaysian Qualifications Framework (MQF) guidelines and standards launched by Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) in 2007 emphasizes eight domains of learning outcomes, which are significantly beneficial for Malaysia to ensure graduates employability. The MQF standards are in line with the Accounting and Finance related industries’ competencies requirement to meet the ever-demanding future accountants’ profession. In addition, the advancement in information and technology has prompted Institutes of Higher Learning (IHL) to utilize computer-aided or e-learning types of assessments to replace or complement the traditional paper-based methods of assessment to evaluate the achievement of the students’ skills and competencies. Educators must realize that the learning styles of students in the 21 st century have moved towards student-centered learning and educators act more as facilitator in the learning process. Therefore, it is imperative for educators to evolve into more innovative types of assessments which can evaluate 21st century industries’ competencies requirement as well as a combination of active and collaborative learning tools. This study attempts to put forward a combination of Constructivist Teaching and Learning theory and technology in promoting and incorporating visual learning and assessment tools in the classrooms using a “Constructivist and Instructional Technology Model”. Keywords-- graduate employability, e-learning assessment, industry competencies, constructivist, instructional technology © 2020 by Advance Scientific Research. This is an open-access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.31838/jcr.07.08.280 INTRODUCTION Passion in teaching is one of the most important factors when pursuing the career in education. However, more often than not, those who enter into the teaching profession are those who lack the “real” passion and interest in teaching. Teaching profession i s considered as the last resort to gain employment especially during economic downturn when finding job is difficult. In addition, those who decided to shift to the teaching profession are sometimes originally from the industries. The misconception is that teaching profession is less hectic as compared to working in industries. Consequently, the majority of educators with industry background are only trained in their respective field of professional expertise for example engineering, architecture, multimedia, information technology and accountancy but not in teaching or cross discipline between the professional areas and teaching. These educators who decided to enter into teaching profession are either not well-trained in teaching pedagogy or the higher learning institutions which is their employers do not provide sufficient training in terms of this teaching pedagogy especially in institute of higher learning setting. Furthermore, this also explains the scenario on why little empirical studies have been conducted in relation to Accounting and Finance education in the areas of curriculum design, teaching and learning pedagogy as well as testing and evaluation or assessment methods in Malaysia. Ainsworth (2001) argues that typically Accounting and Finance educators feel comfortable to discuss research with colleagues in the professional Accounting and Finance related areas but discussion in relation to Accounting and Finance education are far less common and uncomfortable. EVOLVING VIEW ON ROLES OF STUDENTS’ ASSESSMENT However, there is an evolving view of students’ assessment which encompasses a dynamic process of continuous evaluating students’ progress towards achieving course learning objectives and outcomes. (Apostolo, 1999). This view foresees that this type of continuous assessment can assist educators to enhance students’ learning as well as provide feedback to the on whether the students’ have been able to achieve the learning objectives and outcomes of the course content materials. Apostolou (1999) further emphasized a comprehensive assessment programme is one of the key instruments to support continuous quality of programmes offered by Institutes of Higher Learning (IHL). Furthermore, according to this view, assessment should be regarded as integral part of the teaching and learning process instead of merely a separate activity from teaching-learning instructional and curriculum. In the context of institutes of higher learning in Malaysia, this practice however, is unusual practice. Instead, “assessment” of students’ performance is viewed as how successful the students are in achieving grades and mostly scores achieved in the final examination. Students are mostly evaluated based on the number of A’s grade that they attained. As a result, most of the “assessments” given to the students are only focusing on ways to achieve good grades especially in final examinations. At this juncture, the “actual” purpose of “assessment” has been diverted into scoring good grades normally in term of high cumulated grade point average (CGPA) rather than providing room for improvements for the students to learn or acquire the learning outcomes of these courses. As a result, when these students graduated, those who score higher grades or very high level of CGPA are unable to secure