Scantron sheets and No. 2 pencils may soon become a thing of the past. Schools around the world are doing away with traditional forms of student assessment in favor of online exams, which offer a level of interactivity and visualization that cannot be achieved with a pencil and paper.
Online exams, in their most basic form, consist of multiple choice questions answered by the click of a mouse, rather than shading in bubbles with a pencil. Advances in technology and new software developments, though, are creating online exams that resemble classroom experiences, and can even mimic science laboratories.
One program recently tested was created by The New South Wales Department of Education and Training and software developing company Janison Solutions. The software questioned students as they conducted an experiment in a virtual laboratory. Over 32,000 participating students logged online to take the exam, which involved responding to a series of situations that were displayed textually and graphically on web pages. The exam greatly differed from a standard, written exam because a student's response actually prompted what would happen in the next step of the experiment. Answers were automatically recorded, and students were able to view any mistakes right as they were made.
Students were also required to complete a survey after the exam, and an overwhelming majority gave positive feedback. Teachers agreed that online exams are particularly beneficial to the learning process because of the level of interactivity involved. A student engaged in an online program learns and recalls more information than one simply reading a written exam and selecting an answer.
NSW Director of Educational Measurement and School Accountability, Kate O'Donnell, is in favor of online exams, due to the increasing popularity of online schools and learning in general. "With more kids learning online, it's [online testing] seen to be the modern way of testing," she said.
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