It’s a breakthrough when it comes to teaching, learning, and taking exams online. However, many people are still wondering whether to choose online tests or not. If so, let’s explore the pros and cons of online exams in today’s blog.
Would you prefer to take examinations offline or online? Many people say online tests are amazing, while others say it sucks. Due to the fact that this is their experience, it is difficult to distinguish who is right and who is wrong. Basically, online exams are good, convenient, and cost-effective. However, it also depends a lot on external factors such as Internet quality, technical equipment, etc. These are the advantages and disadvantages of online tests. Understanding this will help us take advantage of its benefits and overcome its drawbacks. Today, let’s learn more about the pros and cons of online exams in this article.
Pros of Online Exams
With the development of computer technology and eLearning, online exams are increasingly popular in education. Let’s go through the 5 major advantages of online exams below.
1. Convenience
The first strong point of taking an online exam is convenience. As long as you have the Internet and a device to access the test, you can take it anywhere. For example, you’re a full-time worker and a part-time student at a school. Once you are on a business trip or traveling with the company on the day of the test. Don’t worry, tell your teacher. With some clicks, he/she can schedule to public the test, send notifications to students and let them enroll in the test. Then, you access and take the test at any time within the time specified by the teacher. Therefore, you will not miss any mission. Conveniently, right?
2. Efficiencies
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It is both time and cost effective to take the tests online. Neither the teacher nor the student takes time to travel to the test site. The two sides just need to agree on a time, somewhere convenient like at home, a café, turn on the computer, and do the test. Teachers also save time on making exams, shuffling questions, grading, and reporting results to students. At each such stage, if they save time, it will reduce the cost of organizing the exam, labor costs, and some other surcharges. And imagine, how much waste will paper tests leave for the environment? The cost of handling it is certainly not small. The online test will save this cost.
3. Accuracy
Another pros of online testing is accuracy. Also thanks to the help of test-making software, the accuracy of the test is more assured. Compared to when taking paper-based tests, it takes less time for teachers to verify the accuracy of the test by taking it beforehand. By doing that, they can detect errors in the test caused by external factors. In addition, the answers, especially the ones of objective test questions, are pre-programmed. Once a test has been completed, students are notified of the results. By doing so, we will prevent unfortunate mistakes from occurring during the grading period due to fatigue and distractions caused by the examiners.
4. Safety
Using quiz makers to create the exam eliminates the risk of cheating or any other ways of exchanging answers. Because all manipulations process without human influence, the scores of the students are automatically and continuously graded as it is set before. Question-making apps can absolutely never cheat on the score in the exam. In addition, they also control the time as well as attempt to do the test, and shuffle the questions. It is very useful to prevent exam cheating.
5. Diversity
Nowadays, exam creation software is designed to create multiple questions in one test. For example, ActivePresenter has built-in ways to create 13 frequently used objective and subjective as well as essay questions. Depending on the test questions’ characteristics, the teacher can include them in the appropriate tests. In addition to rich question types, the software also allows teachers to add interactive objects such as buttons, feedback, and checkboxes. Another plus is that teachers can add images and audio to the test – the thing that paper tests cannot do. These are essential elements for skills tests like listening or speaking.
Cons of Online Exams
As shown above, online exams come with many strengths. However, everything has both sides. and so do the online tests. Keep reading to find out its weaknesses in this part.
1. Device requirements
Without a doubt, to take the tests online, we need devices. It can be a phone, or a tablet, but the best is still a computer or laptop. An old, slow device may not be suitable for an online test. The reason is that time management during the exam is very important. All operations to do the test, choose the answer, and go to the next question need to be fast. In some cases, a student may be unable to complete the test if the device fails to handle it in time, the mouse malfunctions, or the computer crashes. Since then, the assessment of students is also not accurate.
2. Internet Dependency
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Online exams are often published on LMS and shared with students. So the Internet is the only way for the above process to proceed normally. It is also a weakness of online tests. If the Internet connection is not stable, weak, or even lost, it will be difficult to transfer exam questions and answers. This affects students’ test performance. Additionally, school districts in remote areas may have limited access to the Internet. Therefore, the online exams are not really suitable for students here.
3. Teachers Stressing
After the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic, many schools around the world have looked for help from online learning and exams. In a short time, teachers and students had to get used to the new form of learning, changing lesson plans and teaching methods accordingly. Then they started worrying about how to take the online exam smoothly, without technical problems, and evaluate students fairly. In addition, not all teachers are good at using technical equipment and machines. Having to change and learn many new things in a short time can be stressful for many teachers.
Final Words
We have just learned about the pros and cons of online exams. This should help you apply to the right students at the right time. If you agree with the benefits of online exams and want to create your own ones, let ActivePresenter accompany you. As mentioned above, the app comes with commonly used question types. It also allows you to add interaction and visualization objects to the tests easily. For more information, download the software, and follow our Tutorials and Blog. You are welcome to create as many effective exams as you like.
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