Most college students will be heading home for the holidays next week, taking final exams away from campus. That’s meant change in how professor craft and monitor tests.
When students enroll at the University of Virginia, they sign a pledge not to cheat, but that doesn’t mean professors ignore that risk – especially with exams happening off campus. Some use technology to monitor test-taking with websites keeping an electronic eye on students.
“They can see if the students are actually looking at the exam page or if they’ve gone to a different tab,” says Ryan Keane, chair of UVA’s Honor Committee. “A lot of professors also require that their students have the video on while they’re taking the test, so that way they can see if they’re flipping thru notes. Some software records you while you take the test.”
Others simply allow students to check their notes or look things up online, but they limit the amount of time for test taking.
“If you’re using your notes to look up every single answer, you’re not going to finish the test," he explains. "It rewards the students who have studied and who know the material.”
At Virginia Tech, Associate Vice Provost Jill Sible says there is new emphasis on essay questions rather than multiple choice, and students are often allowed to check their notes and look things up online.
“For example where they might have given a one-hour proctored exam, they’re now taking a new approach – open notes, open web, a deeper dive into some of the questions, sometimes giving the students not just an hour but a 24-hour window to really spend time deeply showing what they know.”
She thinks that approach makes sense at a time in human history when information is changing rapidly.
“I do think this is a bright spot that will come out of the pandemic. We’re finding some practices that are really satisfying and quite authentic relative to how we work in the real world.”
The only downside – it takes professors a lot longer to grade those tests.
