Transitioning from in person written exams to electronic exams has been one of many challenges we have faced in this crisis. In a normal semester my exams will consist of at most 20% multiple choice questions, the remainder of the questions could allow students to show their understanding through calculations and short answer questions. All students, between 75 and 600 of them in any given semester, will take their exams at the same time and grading takes place immediately after.
I had an exam scheduled for the week that we started transitioning online, I decided to postpone the exam until after spring break, allowing me more time to develop my strategy and deploy the exam through Blackboard. I prepared a multiple-choice question section and a short answer section where students could demonstrate their conceptual understanding of the material.
Several questions passed through my mind while preparing my revised exam format:
1. Should I have students upload pictures of their work so that I could continue to ask calculation questions?
I decided to not have students upload pictures of their work. I did not know what software or hardware students might have to be able to upload pictures. Nor did I want to deal with the technical difficulties students might face. Uploading pictures and files has worked well for homework assignments, but students feel that exams are higher stakes and panic when things do not work appropriately. Also, students might need additional time to upload files.
2. What kind of time limit should I set for students?
Blackboard tests can be set up so that they are only available on a specific date and for a set amount of time. Taking into consideration the fact that students were scattering across the country and the world, having them all available at a specific time on a specific day seemed unreasonable. I chose to make the multiple-choice section available to the students for three days, however once this section was opened a timer started and students would need to complete it in three hours. For the short answer written section, it was open for five days and students could jump in and out as often as they wanted or needed to, as long as the questions were answered and submitted by the deadline.
3. Should the exam be open note/open book? Should the exam be collaborative?
Both portions of the exam were open note/open book, but not collaborative. Students were allowed any resources they felt were helpful, except for live people. Retrieving the information from their notes can help with retention of material over time. None of this is easy to monitor. Some of our colleagues are sharing their experiences with programs that help proctor online exams. I decided to trust my students, after reminding them of the expectations of academic integrity.
I will be offering one more exam this semester with a format similar to the one that I offered right after spring break. The format for the final is yet to be determined. Stay tuned.