Exams “after COVID 19” – how much more digital have we become?

The COVID pandemic was particularly challenging for many organisations, and it gave rise to new topics in the field of assessment. Read on to find out what Pete Kaithan thinks about remote proctoring and how it may contribute to the future of assessment. 

 

The pandemic was an incredibly challenging time for everyone, including those of us in exam management. New experiences made during this time were both interesting and instructive and we soon realised that computer-based testing was a blessing because of the flexibility it offered. Another digital topic which surfaced immediately after the pandemic hit was that of remote proctoring of exams. 

Taking exams from home 

When everyone is confined to their own four walls, people start to think about what kind of services previously provided in schools, offices, shops, or locations away from home could now be provided at home. In the exam sector remote proctoring was suddenly the focus of great interest, even though it had already existed before the pandemic and was not an entirely new topic. Linguaskill, for example, is a successful remote-proctored online testing system. Furthermore, a general awareness of what should be technically possible in the digital age led us to believe that it should theoretically be easy to take any exam from the comfort of one’s own home. 

Not as straightforward as expected 

It soon became clear, however, that remote-proctored exams are not as easy to implement at short notice as one might expect. Not only exam organisations such as Cambridge Assessment, but also local universities quickly realised that there is more to a remote-proctored exam than meets the eye. Primarily the security issues at hand presented considerable challenges, but also, the onboarding process, which is partly the responsibility of the individual candidates, requires enhanced guidance. Linguaskill presented Swiss Exams with an excellent opportunity to learn and improve on these processes and it has given us considerable hands-on experience with this mode of testing.  

It will take time 

There is no doubt that remote-proctored exams will play a significant role in exam management for high-stakes exams in the future. However, we imagine that it will remain a matter of choice for both schools as a collective and for individual candidates to choose what form their exam will take in the future. When Swiss Exams started with computer-based testing as the first Cambridge Centre in Switzerland, expectations were high. Now, 13 years later, about 45% of candidates in Switzerland still choose to take their exam on paper. So, it’s not a matter of “if” but more of “when” and “how”! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Commentary by Pete Kaithan, CEO Swiss Exams