Guidance for conducting online exams | Staff guide

This guide outlines recommendations and guidance for running online exams.

Key Principles 

Here are some key principles to help you design your online exam.

• Keep it simple: We want to keep the process as simple and as flexible for you and your students. We don’t want you to have to learn complex technologies and processes in isolation without support. We hope that this will reduce stress for both you and your students.  
• Communicate clearly: Ensure you have written clear instructions to help students understand how the exam will work. 
• Getting used to the new technology: Allow time and opportunities for students to become accustomed to any new technology which will be used for summative submission 
• How long does the exam last: Divide up the exam into sections and have more than one exam, with breaks in-between. Breaks will reduce student anxiety and the impact of any outages or reliability for students.  
• This is not face to face: As with the migration of teaching, it is important to note that simply migrating in-class approaches into a virtual domain may not be the best solution. If redesigning an exam for online delivery, there may have to be significant changes made to the design of the assessment. 
• Do the best you can: Do the best you can, we understand there may not be equivalents. 

Issues 

• General reliability: Online can offer a degree of reliability but can never be as robust as face-to-face invigilated exams. There suggestions in the guide to increase reliability.  
• Broadband reliability: Students with poor and unreliable internet connections may find the exam loads slowly or may even disconnect and close the exam. Here are suggestions to reduce the disruption this may cause. It is strongly recommended that students use a hard-wired connection plugged directly into your computer instead of a wireless connection when taking the exam. A wireless connection will work but is NOT recommended because small fluctuations in your internet connectivity may interfere with the exam. If needed, move to another computer that has a wired internet connection (instead of a wireless connection). 
• Canvas reliability: Canvas can have occasional issues that may affect the running of the exam. Invigilators are recommended to check this website and monitor it for potential issues during the exam.  
• Browser: We recommend that students use Google Chrome browser for the exams, particularly on Apple Mac computers.
• Third-party solutions: Some staff members use non-Canvas solutions for online tests and quizzes such as Maple TA. If these are to be employed for the delivery of online exams, it is very important that the scope of support and system availability are made clear by the provider and made clear to staff and students involved. Any issues with non-institutional solutions are likely to take longer to resolve and it may not be possible for the TEL team to provide a resolution. 
• Long text answers: It is NOT recommended that students type long answers into online exams as the text is not saved as they write, and any disruption could lead to them losing work.  
• The time allowed for the exam: It is not recommended that exam times are shortened to account for the ability of students to potentially access supportive materials to answer questions. A far better approach is to write exam questions that challenge students beyond the level of recall. This can be coupled with levels of randomisation that make it harder for students to share answers (see Question Banks below).  

• Images: If you intend to include an image in the questions, make sure you include a direct link to the image as well as embedding the image. The student might be using a browser that does not display the image within the question text and will need to download it. Include an image question in any mock exam to help students identify any issues. For guidance on adding images, see How to upload and embed an image in the Rich Content Editor. When embedding images, ensure accessibility by following How to manage alt text and display options for images in the Rich Content Editor. Edit your pages to add files and images, and provide a text description (alt text) of the image for any students with visual impairments.

• Invigilation/support: Students will need support to be available during this period to help with any technical issues. Students should be able to contact you immediately if they are locked out of a test or experience problems. Students should also know how to send screengrabs if necessary (Windows Instructions or Apple Mac Instructions).  You should be familiar with the processes in Canvas that extend the time allowed and grant additional attempts. Read the guidance below on how to provide extra time. 
• Preparations for students with disabilities: Candidates with disabilities should be advised to contact the assessment centre well in advance to ensure that adequate provision is made for their needs. Read the guidance below on how to provide extra time.  
• Create a mock exam: Allow students to sit a short mock exam to allow them to familiarise themselves with the system and provide you with feedback if they encountered any issues. Practice materials should draw attention to the help features of the software. Read about minimum technological requirements for Canvas and communicate this to students. Do a browser check for Canvas. Disable pop-up blockers: Pop-up blockers may interfere with the normal functioning of Canvas. If you have pop-up blockers, you must disable them. Only open the Canvas quiz browser window. Other programs and browsers can interfere with a Canvas quiz. Do not close the browser window while taking the exam. 
• Mobile: While Canvas functions on mobile devices, using them does not offer the same level of reliability or security as provided by a desktop or a laptop computer.  We strongly recommend that students complete any assignment, test, or quiz on a more stable internet connection with a desktop or laptop, if possible.