The increasing utilization of information technology in the education sector has revamped teaching and evaluation systems. There’s a revolutionary change in the academic domain. The pandemic caused the postponement of the physical mode of examinations, which badly affected higher education sectors. As a result, there was a shift from in-person learning to remote teaching and learning.
Although the transition to technology was somewhat smoother, no proper system was available for teaching and learning remotely and managing examinations with the challenges of automating exams. Questions like what to teach, how to manage exams, and how to teach were still being determined. However, educators are adapting to the change, and global universities are exploring the possibility of online assessments to make this transformation seamless.
Moreover, most importantly, education stakeholders want that candidates can handle the paradigm shift from offline to online process. The digital learning industry is making progress rapidly and factors such as scalability, expanded reach, customization, and convenience are making it demanding. Previously established evaluation techniques no longer serve the purpose as they have geographical limitations, significant turnaround time, high logical costs, and hiring several invigilators to curb cheating.
Challenges of Automating Exams: Issues Universities Face
Unlike in-person examinations, online assessments are versatile and pose many challenges of automating exams for universities.
Bandwidth Issues Vulnerability
For the online examination to be successful, good internet connectivity is vital. On the contrary, many learners do not have a stable internet connection at home.
Moreover, if the internet speed is low, online examinations won’t work, and they will crash between the exams, causing significant disruptions. Hence, it is tough to take exams at home.
Cheating
Cheating has always been a challenge in the educational sphere. According to a survey, 95% of learners admitted to cheating in some form, whether during online exams or doing homework assignments.
Additionally, rapid technological advancement and the adoption of e-learning methods have made things worse. With the emergence of ChatGPT, universities are forced to change their policies to combat cheating by artificial intelligence.
Time Constraint Issues
Regarding subjective-type questions in online examinations, students may be required to type hundreds of words. While they may know the answers to the questions, every student doesn’t have a good typing speed. Hence, they might not be able to complete exams on time.
Also, most students are accustomed to physical assessments, where they can view all questions at once and start answering the ones they feel most confident about. Therefore, in online exams, they may have to juggle between multiple questions, which takes time, increasing the chances of missing many questions.
Limited IT Resources
Even though every instructor and learner has learned how to use a pc/laptop/smartphone, go to the web and join an online class, it becomes tricky when they have to conduct online examinations in a secure environment.
They have to ensure that there is no student impersonation during online exams while protecting students’ sensitive information (e.g., login information, registration number, etc.).
For the online examination system to work effectively, IT experts are required to manage and oversee the process, or institutions must invest in high-end online examination management systems to cope with different challenges.
However, if you choose the latter, you will have to spend time and resources learning about the ins and outs of the system to avoid any trouble during exams.
Additionally, depending on the number of learners appearing for the exams, you must have people to ensure everything goes smoothly and tend to issues as and when they come forth.
Evaluation
Every institution has unique guidelines for evaluating papers and other examination coefficients.
Unfortunately, most online examination systems fall short of offering such customizability. Consequently, universities must optimize their existing guidelines to suit foundations and guarantee unbiased marking.
Online Examination System’s Advantages
While there are challenges universities face due to online examination systems, it offers a myriad of advantages.
Smart Proctoring
An outstanding online examination tool comprises an innovative proctoring feature that reduces cheating chances. Such tools use AI-enabled remote proctoring techniques to prevent suspicious activities during the paper.
In addition, it provides considerable warnings on pre-defined tolerance levels to ensure high-standard exam proctoring.
Reduced Costs
Universities no longer need to print question papers and answer sheets. It saves time and money.
Although some institutes may require experts to keep an eye on students, human intervention is next to minimal. It saves universities a lot of logistic costs.
No Geographic Limitations
While most students are learning from their homes, an online examination system enables each one to take part in the examination regardless of their geographical location. As a result, it ensures everyone’s safety and prevents any disruptions during the exams.
Multi-Factor Authentication
Multi-factor authentication eliminates the risk of student impersonation. It requires learners to click their pictures with their ID cards in their hands.
Final Thoughts!
Given the current scenario after the pandemic, online examinations are far better than physical testing. You wouldn’t want your learners to suffer because online systems are not robust.
You can choose an online examination system that matches your needs to simplify the process and trust your learners not to cheat. Moreover, ensure that you have people who can handle technical problems during examinations.
