Many studies have been conducted on the implementation of alternative assessments on students. However, this study is carried out to explore definitions, characteristics and students' perceptions of alternative assessment at university and school level. A total of one hundred and seventeen (117) journal articles were searched through different search engines, and only twenty-six (24) recent and relevant publications published between years 2002 to 2018 were included in this study and remaining are excluded. Among inclusions, there were ten (10) quantitative researches, six (6) qualitative, seven (7) mix-mode and one (1) review paper. The overall respondents of the studies were two thousand eight hundred and seven (2807). Most of the studies were carried in Asian countries such as Indonesia, Iran, Turkey, Malaysia, Bosnia, Thailand and Egypt and some of the studies were conducted in the USA, UK, Scotland, and Netherlands. The finding reveals that the learners have a positive perception of implementing the alternative assessment. Furthermore, the findings of some studies revealed alternative assessment is preferable while other researches indicated the alternative assessment favorably. Besides, some studies have suggested some recommendations for the implementation of alternative assessment.