Improving Entrepreneurship Education through a HOTS-Based Digital Assessment Tool Infused with Prophetic Values

Entrepreneurship education requires assessments that develop higher-order thinking while encouraging ethical reflection. This study developed and evaluated a learning-oriented digital assessment tool integrating Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) with prophetic values of honesty, responsibility, transparency, and wisdom, operationalized as culturally situated expressions of virtue ethics within authentic entrepreneurship tasks and rubrics. Guided by the Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation (ADDIE) model, the study used a multiphase, mixed-methods research-and-development design involving 131 undergraduates: 30 pilot participants, 71 intervention participants, and 30 comparison participants. Quantitative data were examined using descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, significance testing, and effect-size estimation; student reflections were analyzed thematically. Four experts produced an average content-validity score of 81.67%, and the instrument demonstrated strong internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = .874). Pilot usability yielded a mean score of 82.33 (SD = 12.56). Among 30 students with matched pretest and posttest data, mean HOTS performance increased from 68.20% to 83.33% (p < .05, d = .86). Reflections suggested increased attention to ethical trade-offs, but the study did not establish improvement in entrepreneurial competence or long-term ethical behaviour. Findings provide preliminary evidence of the tool’s validity, usability, and potential to support cognitively demanding, ethically reflective learning. This context-sensitive framework contributes to learning-oriented digital assessment research in values-based higher education broadly.