If you're reading this, you probably love your computer. Let us make no debate about this, computers are now extremely useful for a variety of purposes, but what if the computer was to meet with the exam some time in the future?

Picture this for a moment. You enter the exam room, sit down at the computer, enter your full name and student ID code. The specially designed software brings up a list of all your current exams available to be sat, you select the exam and your whole exam is there online waiting for you. Your probably thinking, wait a minute. Wouldn't that make it easier to cheat with access to internet? It is therefore that I propose that the internet be disabled and so only able to be used for the purpose of recieving and sending your exam, of course in an encrypted format to the online server for that particular exam. Of course, there would still be an invigilator in the room, and perhaps even features like a 'call' button in the software that would be able to call said invigilator over to your desk, should you need any assistance.

Obviously, I have no doubt that you may question the efficiency of such a system and the potential cost of implementing it, but what if said software was to be installed within the school computer system itself, therefore negating the need for any new computers or hardware, to some degree. I do agree that such a change in the way exam boards operate would create mass controversy, but it is something I feel especially intruiged about. I could only but suggest a trial of the software by students in a variety of schools over a good period of time to see if the system would at all be useful.

It is then that you may ask, what about the complications of the varying types of exam? Here is where I should mention that, of course, an electronic system of this nature could not be used for every exam that is available, such as Design Technology because the exam contains many hand written and drawn partitions to it, but to some extent, I believe this system would be far more efficient, time saving and more cost effective for the majority of people involved. It would also save a large amount of paper, which is obviously very beneficial to the environment.

Let us imagine one step further. Suppose the system outlined above was to prove exceedingly successful, could this then not be integrated into the touch screen systems that I'm sure that with time will be implemented into school computers aiike? It is such innovation into education that I am sure the vast majority of us are eager to see.

Comments welcome.
- daveyy.

Tags: electronic, exams, invigilator, software

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Permalink Reply by CaySedai on October 23, 2009 at 4:47am

I'm taking classes at a community college. My exams are online, but they are restricted to a certain time period, and have a password, as well. The password is given by the instructor at the time of the exam.

When the test is complete, it grades the answers and shows which answers are wrong (but doesn't show the right answer). It allows for typed in answers, as well as multiple choice or true/false.

We don't have touch screens or a call button, but the instructor is present, and the mouse is quite adequate for navigation.

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Permalink Reply by David King on October 23, 2009 at 8:30am

Ah, that is good to hear. But do you prefer that over a written based exam, or do you feel that the technology isn't quite there yet? I do know that in the past systems like this have been tried and haven't been that successful but with the extensive advance in technology since then, is it fair to say it is somewhat becoming more efficient? And thats what I mean, it's features like that that would bring the exam into the 21st century.

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Permalink Reply by David King on October 24, 2009 at 1:42pm

Exactly, thats something I didn't think about. It's much easier to collaborate what went wrong and why and so therefore better the education you can give as a teacher. Excellent.

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Permalink Reply by Orlowiz on October 23, 2009 at 10:42am

At my school, some of the tests we take is online.. If we wanted to, we could just find a calculator online and use that.. But with teachers monitoring your every move, it isn't that simple... At least I belive that in the future, ALL tests will be online..

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Permalink Reply by David King on October 24, 2009 at 1:42pm

would be far better if they were, for example, in english and RE you have to write copious amounts of information in quite a short space of time and I know I'd far rather type than write.

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Permalink Reply by Lee (lhamil64) on October 24, 2009 at 5:15am

I see how online exams can be good, but I recently had an experience that makes me not like them.
My sister came home from her dorm and used my parents computer to take an online test. The way this one was setup is that once you start it, you cant close it and come back.
She was using IE, and it displayed the page wrong so the submit button wasn't visible. I thought it was the screen resolution so I went in and tried changing it, only to get a BSOD when I clicked OK.
She ran to my computer and found that now she had a zero on the test.

It did work out in the end though, she just emailed her teacher who reset it for her, and someone told her she needed to use Firefox to take it.

There is also the matter of who actually did bad and lied about their computer crashing or who's computer actually crashed in the middle of it.

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Permalink Reply by David King on October 24, 2009 at 10:42am

I can understand why in those circumstances you might be persuaded against electronic exams but I'm not talking about the exam being present within a web browser. As I said, I mean an actual specifically designed piece of software, exact for it's purpose.

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Permalink Reply by David King on October 24, 2009 at 5:12pm

Thinking about computer crashes, I'm sure in development the software could save your work before such an eventuality just like a word document does, recovery?