Should Online Exams Become the Norm?

Should Online Exams Become

the Norm? By: Saba Aamir Layout Designer

Two years ago, the pandemic shut down everything and we were all forced into our homes. A big deal of concern arose among students and a lot of ambiguity about how they will attend school now and how they will take exams.

Almost every educational institute canceled the exams and classes at the start of the pandemic and everyone was looking for ways to adjust to the “new world.” With modern technology, educational institutions began operating remotely and allowed their students to take classes online from anywhere they wanted, in this case, from their homes.

Due to the convenience, the demand for online academic classes was and is still on the rise. This has also caused exams to be conducted online. However, with everything online, there came challenges to academic honesty. According to www. cnbc.com, a study conducted at the Imperial College London indicated that the shift to online learning has caused students to use online tools in ways that are “not considered permissible by universities.” Texas A&M University specifically found that 800 of their students finished complex exams “in less than a minute” by using information available on a website referred to as Chegg. In comparison to in-person exams, which are more focused and do not include a lot of distractions, online exams have caused students to get the answer and be done with it as soon as they can.

To counter academic dishonesty, many educational institutes provide their professors and teachers with platforms where they can monitor their students while taking an exam. According to www.cnbc.com, online platforms such as Honorlock, Respondus and ProctorU are pretty popular as they offer lockdown browsers that prevent students from opening other tabs and provide the option to have a live proctor who can monitor students on camera. Even though students have tried to do their best to cheat on exams while using these tools, the educational institutes have caught them and were able to reduce the amount of cheating on exams.

I asked University of St. Francis Senior, Sarah Vandermolen, what she thinks about online exams.

This is what she had to say:

“Although online exams are seemingly convenient for both teachers and students, it really puts into question a student's integrity. Teachers have expectations that students won't cheat, but they shouldn't be surprised if they find out that their students used some outside sources for their exams. If the teacher would like to have 100 percent certainty that a student won't cheat, they should revert to holding exams in person.”

Saying that online exams are here to stay is not wrong because the pandemic is still here and there might be a situation when a student cannot leave home and this offers an opportunity for them to stay focused and not fall behind from their peers. Since everything is online now, there is no way a student can make an excuse that they missed their classwork.

The shift to online education did impact the overall learning of students. According to www.elearningindustry.com, the online environment even though has the same teaching materials, does tend to cause loss of motivation among students which may cause a decline in their grades.

Apart from this, there is a digital divide, meaning not every student has the luxury of high-speed internet and this clearly divides students in terms of knowledge that they can gain online.

DECEMBERDECEMBER EVENTSEVENTS

MONTHLY THEME: TIS' THE SEASONINGS

The Holidays are a time of fun and flavor, and Quest will be bringing all the seasonings of the season to our students to inspire holiday cheer during the month of December.

02 FRIDAY

COOKIES AND CHEER

Students will have the chance to purchase a cookie with a decorating kit or participate in a decorating station, complete with festive frostings & sprinkles!

07 WEDNESDAY CANDY GRAMS

Candy Cane Grams for sale all day for students to enjoy themselves or to gift to a friend or teacher, wishing them a very happy holiday season!

15 THURSDAY COCOA TO-GO

On National Cocoa Day, we will have a make your own cocoa bar set up that includes cocoa mix, marshmallows and other colorful toppings.