Online Examinations 101: Why Are There Requirements You Need to Comply with?
Teaching and learning remotely have their own set of challenges, most of which deal with the technical issues that can occur. Internet technology, whether through a wired connection or wireless, can be unreliable. There may also be problems handling certain activities like video streaming, which consumes more data.
But even with the smoothest internet connection, many issues can still disrupt the teaching experience. This includes the environmental setup of each student and their capacity to adapt to online learning.
So, for this article, we’ll discuss everything you’ll need to be ready to hold a successful online examination.
Why Are There Specialised Requirements for Holding an Online Exam?
The difference in the exam environment is definitely the biggest factor. This brings to rise various challenges associated with academic dishonesty and examination integrity. These must be addressed to ensure meaningful learning among the students.
This means it’s not going to be as simple as emailing everyone a copy of the exam. There must be a set of rules that everyone needs to comply with. Particularly, there should be standard operating procedures that both you and the exam takers are familiar with.
This process should transform your in-classroom procedures, just as they are simplified by auto proctoring solutions like ProctorEdu online test monitoring, into a few steps:
- Select exam monitoring features
The features that you choose will depend on the type of exam that you are holding. That’s why it’s important to partner with a company that has a variety of features to adapt to various exam modes.
And don’t worry! Our auto proctoring software is very user-friendly, so you won’t feel lost during this part of the process.
ProctorEdu also lets you choose from three different modes of online proctoring, one of which is completely automated. This means you don’t have to be with the students virtually while they take the exam.
- Have an onboarding process
Especially if it’s their first time taking an online exam, the students should know what to expect on the day itself. For one, what do they have to prepare on the day? At this point, they should learn how the tech works so they can focus on the exam on the day.
If there are standard operating procedures you want to employ, they must be explained here.
- Verify the student’s ID
You want to make sure that the examinee on record is also the one taking the exam. This is why it’s important to verify their identity using a form of ID. The software will take care of this.
Do you want to accept other identification cards? Make sure that the students know this beforehand.
- The students take the exam
Once their identities have been verified, the students can proceed with the examination. The great thing about using an online proctoring solution is that it can monitor what a human proctor can’t.
For example, any internet speed irregularities are monitored. This means that, should a student ask for consideration based on technical issues, the proctor will be able to better assess the merits of the condition.
- Look at the examination results
All the reports produced during the examination will be given to you. And you can do what you like with this information. Let’s say you’re looking to improve your teaching methods. You can use the exam results to see which areas you need to focus on more.
Or perhaps you want to make sure that the exam better reflects what the class learned. If there are items that all of them got wrong, you may want to find out why. The information that you have would allow you to look at it from the micro or macro level.
What Are the Requirements for an Online Exam?
Based on what we’ve discussed so far, you already know just how important auto proctoring software is. Not only does it augment the capabilities of a human proctor, but it also gives immunity from human blind spots.
But this is just the first of many things that the students will need. Along with the use of the software, they also need:
- A laptop or computer compatible with the chosen software. Most companies that offer this as a service let users test the device beforehand. Require your students to do this beforehand to avoid delays on the actual exam day.
- Smartphone or tablet. If you want to get a full view of their testing environment, you can’t rely on just the main device. A smartphone or any other video-capable device will ensure that the environment is up to the agreed-upon standards.
- Distraction-free environment. For timed exams especially, a distraction-free environment is encouraged. This will allow students to focus on answering while also eliminating suspicions of cheating.
Conclusion
Different situations will call for different responses. And with the right resources and strategies for holding the exam, you can preserve the integrity of the examination as a metric of learning.
