Major Benefits And Challenges Of Conducting Exams During Pandemic
The online examination system is one of the safest ways to conduct an exam during the COVID-19 pandemic. Apart from the students, it also helps to keep the teachers, administrators, and evaluators safe from committing into contact with coronavirus.
Online exams can be attempted online by the students with the help of the online exam software. All they need is a technology device, such as a computer, laptop or tablet or even a mobile phone to appear for it.
Also, teachers can easily prepare the question paper and select the questions on the online exam software like MegaExams.
They do not need to manually search or write down the questions. The online exam portal already has a detailed set of questions in the question bank pertaining to the given topic or syllabus. The teacher needs to simply select the questions from the bank to create an online test.
Once ready, they just need to load the question paper into the online system so that students can access it.
The student can access the questions by entering their valid login id and password. They can view the questions only during their allotted time period. When the time is up, the exam system will close automatically, suggesting the end of the examination. After which, the marks will appear on the screen.
Online exams greatly minimize the risk of the students and teachers getting exposed to the virus, as both parties can create as well as appear for the exam remotely with the help of computers or smartphones.
The online examination system is an extremely secure form of exams. With effective cybersecurity, the system can quickly detect and alert the administrator of any unwanted movement or activity by the student. The system can also bar the student from giving the exam if any malicious activity is conclusively determined, thus, bringing in a high level of security and transparency to the online exam.
The online exam system greatly reduces the efforts of the teachers and administrators. In a conventional exam, the teacher had to manually prepare the questions and get them printed for the students. This used to eat a lot of time and resources. With the online test software, they simply need to select the appropriate questions and upload them into the main system and share it with the students.
As most of the work is done online, this almost negates the administration and preparation expenses of the examination. You do not need to arrange for an exam centre, print question paper, arrange answer sheets, or assign invigilators for the examination. Therefore, you can now conduct examinations effectively by using very limited resources.
One major challenge is the unavailability of uniform technology devices among students. Not all students have equal access to the right technology required to smoothly conduct online exams. Some students may not have a proper computer system, Smartphones or access to a fast internet connection. This may hamper the online examination process.
However, there is an option wherein, the students could give their exams offline and then load their answer onto the cloud later for evaluation.
Another challenge is related to the type of examination you give. You can easily conduct objective examinations with the online exam platform, but it is a little more difficult to conduct subjective type exams, given the remote location of the students and the unavailability of proper technology in rural areas.
However, the new online exam platform allows students to write the answers on paper and then scan them and load them onto the system, allowing teachers to evaluate the answers effectively.
Despite the challenges, the online exam system is the best way to conduct a thorough assessment of the knowledge and learning of students. If you want to know more about our online test software and online exam portal, visit us at MegaExams today.