Switching from paper-based to online exams – key considerations

However, despite the clear advantages of switching to online exams, organisations are also aware of its risk and complexity. And when you’ve been doing something a certain way for decades it can feel easier and safer to stay on the same track.

Making the switch from paper-based to online exams is far from impossible – there are a few key considerations you’ll need to work through. They’ll take time and effort – it’s a big change to the way you work, after all – but once completed you’ll be able to run more efficient, cost-effective and accessible tests for your candidates.

In this article, we list every important consideration and provide guidance on how to approach and resolve them. Let’s dive in.

1. Leadership must be convinced that online exams are the way forward

For an assessments business or educational institution, it doesn’t get much bigger than transitioning from paper to online exams. The move can have a tremendous impact on your operational efficiencies, candidate experiences, and return on investment.

For the project to have any chance of being approved by leadership, they need to be convinced with a considered, thorough business case. This may include the primary reasons for moving to an online exam platform, the essential operational and system changes involved, and most importantly, the estimated return on investment and business growth that the switch might provide.

More specific details may include the number of students, assessments, and exam events that are processed each year, whether the tests will be completed on-site with invigilators or at-home with remote proctoring software, the stakes of the digital tests (e.g. high-stakes), marking processes and requirements, and how student results are handled.

As such an important piece of work, you’ll likely need support to complete it, including many rounds of scrutiny and refinement. The request may even come from the leadership team directly, or they may be involved in its creation. In any event, the business case needs to be rigorous and persuasive.

2. Fit-for-purpose online assessment software must be selected

With the business case happily approved, the next big undertaking is selecting an online assessment platform that suits your needs.

Having run paper-based assessments up until this point, you’ll need to spend considerable time thinking through your current processes and how they might adapt and evolve for the online system. Try to aim for a digital-first process, not a paper-based process supported by a digital system. You’ll find the former much more efficient.

You may have already shortlisted some new online exam system contenders in your business case, with a general idea of their features and costs. But now is the time to get into the specifics. Among other things, you’ll need to identify a system that allows you to:

• Create the item types and test formats you need, including how they’re banked and saved.
• Design test creation workflows and management processes that suit your needs.
• Deliver tests that are safe, secure, and reliable (for example, do you need the tests to work offline?).
• Easily start, stop, monitor, and manage tests in the ways you need.
• Provide crucial accessibility features to allow students with disabilities to complete the tests fairly.
• Ensure that tests taken at candidates’ homes are proctored using quality software that can reliably detect cheating.
• Mark tests and run your marking teams in the most efficient way possible.
• Create the key reports you need to evaluate the performance of students and your broader business.
• Reliably deliver the number of tests you need with minimal outages, including being able to scale if required.
• Securely store students’ personal information and assessment data.

The online assessment platform you select will slot into the centre of your business, so take your time and choose wisely.

3. Assessment and student data needs to be collated and imported

Companies that complete paper-based testing tend to use a variety of systems to store their student and assessment data – typically student management systems or old-fashioned documents or spreadsheets.

This data must be vetted to identify what needs to be kept, collated and saved in the correct format, and then imported into the new online exam system. You may find that assessment layouts change dramatically, with a shift from complex hierarchies (e.g. question 1, part a, sub-point i) to a simpler user experience provided by the digital exam platform – one question per screen, with simple “previous” and “next” buttons to navigate through the test.

If existing systems like a student management system are being retained, you’ll need to figure out how the data will be updated (usually via automatic API transfers – a digital connection between the two systems).

Because of how important it is for your test and student data to be accurate, it’s another time-consuming task that needs much consideration, as well as lots of support [add link to new partnership blog] from the team behind your new online assessment system.

4. Staff members need training on how to use the online exam software

Your staff members are undoubtedly very comfortable with your paper-based processes, gliding through them with ease. Unfortunately, moving to a digital online exam platform will disrupt this comfort and may be met with considerable anxiety, especially for invigilation teams whose members tend to be older.

Just how you “sold” the online exam system to the leadership team, you’ll need to provide plenty of reassurance to staff members on the vast benefits of switching to digital. This should include an overview of your bulletproof training plan, and how you’ll make them competent with the system and happy once again in their day-to-day.

The training plan may include:

• How assessment creators create and manage tests.
• How exam invigilators or supervisors run the tests.
• How markers mark the tests.
• How all staff members access and run the reports they need.

Ideally, the team behind your chosen exam management platform will be able to provide you with live training sessions on these key tasks, as well as ongoing support that includes videos and other training resources.

5. Devices need to be arranged for the online exams

If you’re going for an at-home test approach, where candidates can complete their tests at home under the watchful “eye” of remote proctoring software, you won’t need to worry about arranging devices.

But if you’re asking candidates to complete tests at an exam venue, you’ll either need to arrange their digital devices (typically laptops) or ask them to bring their own. Regardless of your choice, every device will require a locked-down browser or application of some sort to prevent cheating, which needs to be pre-installed before the exam takes place.

As you can imagine, this can take a lot of coordination and can be expensive if you’re providing the devices, which need to be purchased and maintained by IT professionals. That’s why at-home tests monitored with remote proctoring software are becoming more popular, and are being adopted by organisations with the highest of standards. [insert link to Cambridge story here],

6. Pilots must be completed

With the core components of your online exam processes in place, it’s time to complete some much-needed pilot tests with candidates. This serves two important purposes.

The first is to ensure that the tests run as expected and discover potential issues/sticking points with the whole process – you’ll likely find a handful of things that can be improved, anything from the usability of the test platform to confusion around receiving results. Without completing a series of pilots, it can be difficult to pinpoint these kinds of problems.

The second reason to complete pilots is to give candidates the opportunity to practise in the new online environment so that they are comfortable before completing any high-stakes tests. While a well-designed online exam system should be easy to use, again, it’s difficult to anticipate problems without pilots, and makes the transition much fairer for candidates who are completing potentially life-changing tests.

Those are the six key considerations and processes that organisations need to work through when switching to online exams.

The transition is a bold move that takes careful planning and execution, but has potentially enormous benefits for your assessment business. It creates an environment where you can scale without issues. We wish you the best of luck!