As courses have moved online, many schools are also taking exams through online mediums. Hence, if you are considering enrolling in an online course, you should expect your exams to be online. However, many students who aren’t prepared to give exams online get lower grades. This is because when you are struggling to navigate through your online test, you will your precious time that you could have used in writing the answers. So if you are an online student, you should know how the whole system works.
Don’t worry if you are clueless at this point, because after reading this blog, you will find yourself saying; ‘I know how to do my online exam’. Whether you like it or not, you need to do well in your exams to get good grades and secure your academic future. Hence, as an online student, here is what you expect when it comes to your exams.
The 3 Top Ways Online Students Take Exams
- In-Person Exams
If you tend to live near your campus, you can request your department for an in-person exam. In many scenarios, online programs offer in-person exams themselves for students who don’t have access to devices. Either way, you can expect your exams to be in-person instead of online. However, you will have to make sure to check with your department beforehand or you might not find out in time.
Contrarily if you live far away, your college might conduct your exam in another institution and location. Either way, there will be an official invigilator to keep an eye on you while you take your exam. The most common locations for exams are public libraries that offer proctoring services, college, and university testing centers, and military education services for those in the military.
If you already have an approved proctor, most of your job is done. However, if you don’t, you will need to find a qualified proctor who is available. After that, your proctor will have to follow certain steps to get themselves approved. Next, you will have to contact them and decide a time and place with your proctor to take your exam. Once, you decide on these, fill out an exam schedule form. Your proctor will get an official notification on their own. Finally, you’ll need your present photo ID to verify your identity and sit for the test.
- Online Exams Supervised By Humans
This is one of the most common methods for taking online exams. This is somewhat between offline and online exams because you will have a human supervising you. There are some common companies like ProctorU that provide a team of people to keep an eye on every student. Having an entire team of humans can help schools make sure that the online exams are fair. In fact, many students feel it’s harder to cheat in these exams than the traditional classroom exams.
Online or remote proctoring works by installing a type of software on your device. This software will allow your invigilators to access your webcam as well as your screen. So if you had been planning to Google the answers, beware or your exam might get canceled. Moreover, they will have access to your audio so you can’t have anyone else in the room dictate the answers to you. Finally, since you are being watched by humans with limited capacity, you will need to arrange a date for yourself even though you’re not in a closed classroom space.
Although one of the biggest downsides of this exam is that students still find a way to cheat. Many of these students use sticky notes and other ideas to cheat during exams. Well, students even cheat during offline exams, so this mode of exams isn’t any inferior. However, it does give students the opportunity to attempt their exams sitting at home.
- Online Exams Supervised by Computer
Now, this is where things get truly digital – there is no involvement of human invigilators here. This is one of the most modern methods of exams as it is done only with the help of computers and software. It is a flexible method of online exams as it allows you to give your exam using your phone. There are many services like ProctorTrack that monitor what applications you are using and your eye movements. Moreover, it also monitors your audio to make sure that you are not cheating while taking the test.
Although there are other proctoring software too, make sure you have them on your device before the paper. You will need to ask your department to inform you about what software you will need. Make sure you install that software beforehand and test if it works fine on your device before the exam. Hence, you will have limited time and you can’t waste it trying to get the software to work. Furthermore, check out the proctoring rules and requirements to make yourself fully prepared for the exam.
Normally, you will be installing the software on your laptop or computer but if you don’t have access to one, ask your department if you can take your exam on your phone. If not, you will have to make arrangements for a device beforehand. Some software only works on desktops and monitors all the data while recording it. This recording is sent to the proctor team for evaluation and approved or disapproved according to how you behaved.
Conclusion:
As we prepare for a super busy exam season, we can’t help but wonder how will we be giving our exams. This especially applies to online students because they have many different ways of attempting their exams. We have made a list of those 3 ways above to help you understand what you are signing up for. While many online programs take exams the traditional way, others move it to online mediums.
Although online exams are relatively new, many schools use this method despite being aware of the challenges in conducting exams. So that you are aware of the 3 main ways of attempting exams as an online student, you won’t need anyone to do my online exam for me. We hope this information helps you prepare well for your exams without relying on risky cheating methods. Good luck!
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