Why Should Educational Institutions Switch to Online Exams for Students?
Every day, education becomes more accessible and available through various channels. Nobody would have guessed that education could go beyond the four walls of a classroom and a whiteboard. However, technological advancements have made education more accessible through smartphones. In addition to offering online courses, edtech platforms have successfully integrated an online examination system.
And now, in the post-pandemic environment, colleges must reflect upon conducting online exams. Weigh its pros and cons wisely before taking a call. Do you, too, wonder if educational institutions should shift to online exams for students? If yes, you are at the right place.
This blog will walk you through the benefits of online exams and apprise you of how universities can make this change.
How Can Universities Shift to Online Exams?
The online examination system manages the procedures involved in giving a test online. This strategy eliminates the need for testing center travel for candidates and examiners. Even when colleges administer exams online, it still significantly affects the students. Here’s how you can transform your examination system and shift it online.
1. Build a Technologically Savvy Environment
Students are eager to use digital tools, given how quickly technology evolves. Many students are drawn to their studies at universities that use online technology.
For this reason, universities must work hard to create a technologically advanced environment. A part of this involves considering the online examination mode. They can accomplish this by creating an environment that piques the interest of the students with the help of new apps and platforms.
2. Improve the Test-Taking Experience
Not only have the examiners' experiences improved but so have the students. The online testing system frequently experience issues, such as a lack of an appropriate exam environment or technical issues, making it challenging to take an online exam.
However, the exam experience has significantly improved in recent years. Proctoring solution providers have won over test takers to take exams online by addressing issues such as direct internet access, minimal software setup, perfecting the invigilation system, and removing other procedural barriers.
Now let’s consider what the benefits of online exams are.
What Are the Benefits of Online Exams?
Here are a few of the many benefits of taking exams online.
1. Secure Method
Exam security is a concern, particularly for exams with high visibility, such as written exams, SATs, and college and university finals. Since no actual papers are lost during the printing and delivery process, online tests have fewer potential leaks.
Examiners can use question banks to select questions randomly, adding an extra layer of security. As a result, almost no two exams are alike, reducing the possibility of cheating.
2. Flexibility
Online exam papers can be created, evaluated, and graded easily. Furthermore, they allow students to answer the same or different questions in the same exam. In a typical exam, there is less tolerance for error and no time for last-minute changes or edits to the question paper. Also, software for online tests is user-friendly. It is simple enough to use for even non-techies.
3. Cost-Effectiveness
You can save money in a variety of ways by taking exams online. There are no printing or delivery costs because everything is done online. You also save money on test centers, facilitators, and invigilators supervising the tests.
Although there are costs associated with administration, email distribution, online proctoring, and IT support for online exams, they are significantly lower than those related to paper-and-pencil testing.
4. Automatic Exam Assessment
Students can also get their results more rapidly because many online examinations are assessed automatically by the software. All you need to do is feed the software the answer key. This is especially helpful for undergraduate students applying to graduate programs or employment requiring transcripts in their final year of study.
5. No Need to Send the Answer Scripts Back and Forth Exam Centers
Question papers and answer sheets must be delivered to authorized exam centers within a specific time frame. A system must also be in place to transport returned answer sheets from all testing locations to a central location for further processing. Such a system may cost you extra as well as be prone to human errors.
An online examination set up effectively cuts down the need to transport answer scripts since all the answers are stored digitally. Furthermore, they are less prone to error since the automated software or the platform takes care of everything.
6. No Cap on the Batch Size
Only a small number of students can sit in a classroom or exam room during offline exams. On the other hand, there are no restrictions on how many students can take an exam online. The exam can be taken at the same time by any number of students, whether 50 or 100 or 500.
Conclusion
It's time to switch your examination mode to online mode, given the recent changes in the field of education. It effectively replaces time-consuming examination procedure with faster assessment, report generation, and precise administration, making the examination process easy for all the stakeholders involve.