Disadvantages of online examination

 Disadvantages of online examination

Examinations are an inevitable part of the educational ecosystem. With evolving technologies, a globalized world, and an increasingly competitive educational landscape, it is necessary to keep up with the times. Along with ever-evolving teaching and learning methods, processes like examinations must also be examined. An online education system is the product of such an analysis – it automates, digitizes and flattens the process to become more accessible, inclusive and accurate compared to its previous avatar.

An online examination is the conducting of an examination or test online in order to measure student’s academic performance. Traditionally, these evaluations were conducted orally or through written tests using pen and paper. Students gathered in an examination hall or room where a question paper was handed to students and students had to write answers within the allotted time period. These questions were not seen previously in order to ensure a fair evaluation of all students. Students then turn in their answer sheets and after a period of time, evaluators share student scores. 

With an online examination, all these traditional elements continue to persist, however, the mode of test-taking has changed – instead of a physical examination hall, students instead log into an online examination system through which they access the question paper and share their answers. Evaluation and the publication of results also happen within this system. Though online the examination has a lot of advantages, it has some disadvantages too which are given below-

Open-Book Exams:

More often than not, the format of online exams is perceived, to some extent, like an open book. It is because, unlike a traditional exam setting where external materials were not allowed inside the exam hall, there is no such provision in the digital format. In fact, it is difficult to stop students from referring to their study materials during an online assessment. Moreover, there is a lack of supervision during the exam session, which jeopardizes the credibility of these tests.

 

Adopting New Technology:

Implementing a new system may create a small disruption and require a period of familiarization by the users. Any transition from traditional methodology to online mode will require investments from educational institutions to upgrade systems. However, making both students and teachers familiar with this transition is the ideal way forward. Such training would educate students and teachers about the new features and benefits of online examination systems. 

 

Infrastructural Limitations:

While there are ample benefits of online examination systems that can positively impact the lives of students and teachers across the world, there are inevitable infrastructural limitations. Many factors influence the user experience around the globe, such as poor internet connectivity, power shortage, and other infrastructural issues.

Conducting online assessment to has its fair share of problems: the two most common being cheating and technical glitches. The possibility of fraud during an online test can’t be ruled out. Also, since these assessments are cloud-based, it seems a difficult proposition to manage thousands of them simultaneously. Data security is also an added concern among education institutes. The top risk of losing test content due to inadequate data security measures implemented at the server end may compel evaluators to adopt this mode of assessment despite its evident drawback.

 

 Connectivity can be a serious disadvantage of online testing. A student’s internet connection either in a school lab or at home can drop at any time for various reasons. In some cases, this could cause the student to lose work or inadvertently submit tests that are incomplete.

The chances of cheating during an online test are tough to eliminate! In fact, unless an instructor is physically watching someone take the test, it is almost impossible to remedy.