Online exams

Dear readers,

in these difficult times there have been a lot of discussions on how to carry out exams at schools and universities: shall we do it the traditional way with the due attention and hygiene measures (masks, distance, etc.) or do we need to use alternative forms (papers written as homework, online exams, etc.) ?

Last semester our university decided to go online and carry out all classes and exams (or almost all of them) online or using alternative forms. The language centre organized everything online: online classes, online office hours and meetings, online exams. It was definitely a challenge, especially with regard to the several regulations and legal limitations.

We organized exams in different ways:

• proper oral exam: students were asked to read a text and then we asked them questions about it on content, vocabulary, and language. This kind of exam was for reading comprehension courses.
• online presentation: this was for presentation courses or for written exams where the content could be shown and explained in a presentation, mostly carried out for resits.
• written assignment: students had a limited period of time (a week at the most) to write a text, carrying out a specific task.
• academic paper: this was for longer pieces of writing, i.e. an essay. Students would normally have one or two months` time to write it.

Written assignments and papers had to be uploaded onto our e-learning platform, some of them were sent in by post. All other oral exams and presentations were carried out using Big Blue Button. Due to the current situation, also this semester our exams will be conducted in the same way, with the due changes and improvements. At the moment, I only have presentation courses, so for me it will be easier this time because all exam presentations will take place during classes. Some of my colleagues would like to try out yet another form of exam: the online written test using our e-learning platform.

What have I learned from the online experience? Well, certainly the internet has a lot of potential and I will definitely use it more often in the future. One of the most important issues is invigilation: in some situations it`s very difficult or almost impossible, as the students are at home and they will certainly have access to books and dictionaries. As a result, the criteria for marking have to be changed and adapted to the new situation. In an online exam, oral or written, students could be asked to position their camera in such a way to make invigilation possible, but that may not be feasible, especially if they have a laptop and they use it to take their exam. Even if they used pen and paper, there still would be problems: are they allowed to leave the room during the exam and is the text they have written exactly the one they would then send in for correction?

Another important issue is time management: it often takes a lot of time to organize and carry out online exams. Instead of the usual two full days we normally have for the language exams, last semester it took us more than a week to evaluate all our students. As you always need two examiners, it can sometimes be difficult to draw up a timetable, allowing enough time for breaks between sessions and assigning teachers the right amount of working hours according to their contracts.

In our reading comprehension exams online, we had groups of three or four students for each session. They had to read a text that we uploaded and then answer questions. In some courses, the teacher decided to send them different texts per email a few days before so that they would have some time to read them. I preferred to ask them to read the text at the beginning of the exam. Anyway, next semester I think I will look for a different way to organize it, maybe trying out the option of the online written test.

The easiest option is a presentation, but there are a few challenges there as well: should the student just sit in front of their laptop and talk while showing the presentation material in the conference chat room or would you ask them to stand up and talk as they would do in a classroom environment? Is that always possible? I think I`ll try it out this semester and check if the students can place their laptop webcams in such a way that they can stand up and give their talk, using a presenter to go through the slides. Only then can I actually make sure that they are not reading any text from their notes, which is the most important criterion in our courses: speak freely without any reading. They are indeed allowed to have notes, but these should not contain any full text and the students must not hold them in their hands the whole time but pick them up only when absolutely necessary.

There is one important positive aspect: the internet offers a lot of potential that we had not seen before. There are a few activities in my classes I now have to do online which would normally have taken place in the classroom or anyway in a face-to-face meeting with the people involved. Once, for example, I met my students in a cafè with some other contacts of mine from other countries and we had a chat about a few topics which were relevant to the exam. Now I am organizing a few interviews online for the same purpose. Would I have used this chance and organized an online chat at that time if the event could not have taken place? I doubt it. Same thing for our meetings: until some time ago, whenever a colleague could not come to university for a meeting for any personal reasons, nobody would have thought of asking them if they could take part using a laptop and a webcam. Now all our meetings are online. Last but not least, next week I`ll have three exams at university with a student and a colleague of mine will be watching from home as a second examiner. I don`t think we would have done that before: if a colleague was not able to come to university for an exam, we would have simply postponed the appointment.

I believe we should use use technology in a more intelligent way, especially when it allows us to save time and money. Why postpone an exam if the second examiner can indeed take part using their laptop? Why should a meeting be postponed when the people who can`t attend in person can still be present using technology? Of course, it should not be a standard procedure and only done when necessary, but we should be flexible and open to all available options.

I guess next year we will still have to teach and evaluate online, at least until next summer. I also believe that we still have a lot to learn, especially about teaching and evaluating online. Most importantly, we should learn to use technology in the right way and create a more flexible legal framework that allows for the implementation of hybrid forms of teaching and assessing students without reducing or compromising quality.

Well, for now I wish all teachers a great semester or year and that you all find a way to use the internet to make your job easier and more comfortable and not make it more stressful and complicated.

Andrew Pecchia