‘’Curiosity’’, ‘’hunger for knowledge'', and ‘’holistic development’’ are some of the key objectives that institutes strive to instill in students. That is why establishing a modern education system that includes effective teaching and learning is essential.
Hence, utilizing strategic assessment mechanisms, including online proctored exams, is the need of the hour. It is an excellent way to conduct timely and well-planned examinations that go beyond the limitations of pen-and-paper tests.
So, does that mean traditional examinations are not as good as online exams? Why are online exams a significant assessment technique? Addressing these questions is equally imperative as finding the correct answers.
The importance of online exams
Online or distance education, or e-learning, is no longer an alternative way of facilitating education or pursuing academics. It has gained traction in recent years, establishing itself as a part of the conventional education system.
Furthermore, changes in curriculum design, global educational trends, and pedagogical shifts have urged institutes to adopt new methods. Especially in the context of examining student learning and ongoing progress, they sought a more modern approach.
How Online Exam Software Works?
That is where the online examination system comes into play, as it provides a flexible, modern, and innovative assessment approach. Besides, the digitalization of the education sector has led to the increasing incorporation of ICT tools.
Therefore, be it mock tests, weekly assessments, or practical and assignment presentations, online exams have become crucial to education. Hence, it begs the question of the difference between online and offline exams.
| Offline (Traditional) Exams |
Online Exams |
| Students attend the traditional exams in person |
Examinees take online tests from the comfort of their home |
| Highly time-consuming and manually intensive pre and post-examination formalities |
Digitalized solutions like online exam software enable institution staff and faculty to automate administrative tasks |
| Limited ways of testing student learning |
Offers varied ways of assessing student’s progress and skill enhancement |
| It takes double the effort for conducting large-scale exams |
Online exams software is highly scalable, enabling institutes to accommodate large-scale examinations effortlessly |
| Traditional examination are prone to limited question types, such as MCQs and long and short question and answers |
Online exams offer a variety of questions, including video-based questions, coding questions, matching, fill-in-the-blanks, descriptive questions, etc |
How are online exams better than offline exams?
1. Remote Assessment System
The traditional examination system mandates students or test takers to go to the stipulated place to attend the exam physically. However, physically handicapped students have difficulty traveling and often face obstacles.
On the other hand, students residing in far-off places commute by public transport to reach their exam destination. Unprecedented road incidents, including traffic jams, could hinder their chances of reaching the venue on time.
In contrast, online exams provide an opportunity wherein students can take the test remotely from any location. The institute sends the exam schedules, which students need to take into account and adjust their time accordingly.
The remote assessment system is a key factor in online education that students consider while applying for various courses.
2. Cheat-Free Examination
Students have proven time and again that they are experts when it comes to methods of cheating. For instance, hide slips of paper in the creases of the body that teachers won’t ever suspect or check.
Similarly, signaling for answers to peers during the ongoing examination using gestures or covert signals when the teachers don’t look is common. Online examinations prevent such practices effectively in the following ways:
- Institutes use online examination tools that have advanced features that establish security protocols for exams.
- Most exam tools come with proctoring software that facilitates audio-based, video-based, and image-based monitoring.
- It tracks students’ activity throughout the examination.
- Anti-browsing features disallow students from opening an external browser or visiting additional websites other than the exam site.
- The object detection feature identifies suspicious objects around the immediate surroundings of a test-taker.
- The software records real-time videos of the exam-taking candidate and snaps pictures as well, which the invigilator can check later.
3. Questionnaire Management
In the traditional examination system, teachers bear the responsibility of developing exam questions and submitting them to the administrator. Selecting and writing the questions by aligning them with the syllabus and curriculum is time-consuming.
Fortunately, teachers or examiners don’t need to spend their time manually creating questions and locking them away. They can rely on a question bank, which allows them to create, edit, and save questions on a digital platform.
Role-based access ensures that authorized people can access the question bank and are safe due to the password protection mechanism. Therefore, it helps to eliminate question paper leaks or undermine the magnitude of examinations.
4. Effective Evaluation System
A considerable amount of time and effort goes into checking test answer sheets, and teachers must pay special attention to it. Quick or slow evaluation increases the chances of inaccurate scores, leading to students applying for paper re-evaluation.
However, online exam software has an online evaluation system, simplifying the answer-checking process for examiners.
At the same time, the availability of additional features like blank pages, adding remarks and comments, etc. enhances the evaluation system. Examiners or teachers can utilize the features and evaluate answer sheets effectively from anywhere. All they need to do is log in with their valid credentials.
Competency-Based Assessments: What You Need to Know?
5. Continuous Student Learning Analysis
In the traditional examination system, teachers are able to determine students' performance through summative exams. Likewise, students and their parents learn about the former’s academic condition in an irregular manner.
That is hardly the case with online exams, wherein teachers can monitor students' ongoing progress through online formative tests. They can conduct weekly and monthly exams as part of the normal classroom sessions through the proctoring software.
Moreover, the online platform provides tools through which they can collect assessment data and carry out varied calculations. Also, analyzing results and generating reports become easy with the software.
In fact, the student reports are extremely useful, and teachers can employ them to assess and compare student performance.
6. Exam Data Management
Collecting and storing exam questionnaires until the exam date is a high-priority task that institutes strive to fulfill effectively. Nevertheless, manually locating them in locked cabinets is not the best way to go.
Similarly, storing the questionnaires on a digital platform with little or no security features makes it vulnerable to hacking activities. However, the cloud storage facility enables you to store questionnaires online safely.
Also, the system stores the exam-taking candidate’s information during the registration process, including the identity proof. Therefore, it is an effective exam data management system that is beneficial for students and institutes equally.
7. Identify Verification
In the context of traditional examinations, students must carry their identity cards and admit cards for every examination. Failure to bring those documents can cause obstacles to attending the exams.
The supervisors check the IDs to verify the identity of candidates before allowing them to continue with their exams. In contrast, online exam software allows institutes to automate the registration process; hence, it stores crucial student information.
Students log in with their credentials and ID proof, which the system verifies with previously stored data, allowing them to take the test.
In Conclusion
Traditional examinations will always be significant to the education system; however, they provide a singular approach to assessment. Online examination is synonymous with the modern educational approach, as it offers varied ways of assessing student learning.
Teachers can provide real-time feedback to students, enabling them to get insights into their academic and overall performance.