Online testing to replace written exams to help ‘exam-phobic’ people

Now in most of the universities online testing is being preferred than the written exams. Recently a senior education figure revealed that written exams will be replaced by persistent online testing to help people with 'exam phobia',

Simon Lebus, chief executive of Cambridge Assessment said traditional GCSE and A-level exams will be discontinued within 10 to 15 years, and instead of writing three-hour exams people will undertake computer assessment.

Lebus added the new age of online testing is not 'science fiction' as exam boards are investing millions of pounds into developing the new technology.

In an interview he told The Guardian, 'The likelihood is that in the next 10 to 15 years it will change almost out of recognition in that by the end of that period of time you'll be able to do exams more or less on demand, on screen'.

'You can make the learning more valid and the technology can enhance the way people engage in the subject. It's very expensive, complex stuff to do. But it is achievable. It's not a vision based on a sort of science-fiction type fantasy.'

Ever since 2002, Lebus, a former investment banker, has been head of the Cambridge Assessment - a department of Cambridge University and the umbrella organization for international exam boards including OCR.

According to him the new system will be helpful for the people who are exam-phobic, but accepted that traditional written exams will be available for those who preferred them.

He added, 'There are some people obviously who get very frightened by exams or couldn't for other reasons do them well'.

'They would be well suited to an environment where there were no exams.'

The computerized world envisaged by Lebus will allow people to take tests at any point during their course, rather than after completing the course. The screening of the progress will be done through completed tasks and tracked online.

Lebus pointed out the new system can include 'adaptive' testing based on each individual’s ability. The computer program will generate tough questions when people answered correctly and easier questions when they got things wrong. Adaptive test is considered to give a more accurate assessment of a student's ability.

OCR has headed a fully e-assessed GCSE in environmental and land-based science since 2007. This summer around 1,800 candidates at 80 schools and colleges will be sitting for the new course.

The plan has been designed on the similar basis of the US education system which favors multiple choice exams and computer marking. South Korea is also on a fast track of developing new e-assessment models, while Denmark is heading the use of the internet during essay-based exams, seen as the equivalent of allowing calculators in maths exams.

But some of the academics have criticized the move towards computerized testing as creating an unfair system.

lan Smithers, professor of education at Buckingham University, said: 'Making judgments about performance isn't easy. The best way of doing it is dispassionate assessment of students tackling the same tasks under the same conditions.'

Dylan Wiliam, a leading exam expert at the Institute of Education, University of London, stated that rather than relieving pressure of exam-phobic students, with the introduction of the new system people will be under constant stress.

'There is no doubt that you could have a completely wired-up classroom where every keystroke will count towards an assessment,' he said.

'But that is too horrible to contemplate - the idea that students are under pressure all the time. We need a culture where kids can make mistakes without being penalized.'

But John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, pointed out, 'Too many people believe that the only legitimate examinations are the ones they took at school many years earlier. The world moves on and assessment should move on too.'