Online Essay Examinations

Most e-assessment systems are very good at supporting multiple choice questions (and variants) but not at all suitable for supporting open, essay style questions. ExamOnline has been specifically designed to support the e-assessment of extended answer and essay examinations. The key features are that it :

• provides a familiar word processor interface for candidates to enter their answers, supporting cut and paste and simple formatting (click on the image on the right to enlarge)
• automatically saves candidate answers as they type. This is a crucial feature in a test where a candidate may spend a long time answering  just one question
• is tolerant to intermittent network / server outages, and recovers  automatically and transparently (learn more)
• can recover from prolonged network / server failure by saving answers to USB file
• supports blind on-screen marking by question, by multiple markers
• supports insertion of comments for feedback
• includes support for hand-drawn sketches to be assessed alongside the online test.

ExamOnline is unique in this specific support for essay style examinations, and the fault tolerance developed to support these kinds of tests also comes into play in all other ExamOnline tests (multiple choice, etc).  And remember, this fault tolerance and automatic re-synchronisation is all achieved through a standard web browser. There is no requirement to install any software at all on the client computer.

You can watch a video of ExamOnline's support for essay questions.

Why we have developed this technology

When it comes to higher level assessment :

• examinations generally consist of essay and extended answer questions;
• some questions will require drawings and calculations to be assessed as part of the process;
• examinations will require detailed human marking, often involving multiple markers.

Examiners are firmly wedded to the idea that essay and extended answer questions enable them to probe a candidates’ detailed understanding more thoroughly than multiple choice questions do. There is, therefore, little imminent likelihood of a mass migration to on-screen, machine marked tests for many higher level tests and examinations.

And yet there are increasing pressures to move away from paper-based tests :

• digital technology is pervasive, students and employees are increasingly ‘digital natives’ (Prensky, 2001);
• much of teaching, learning, and training is technology based / supported;
• digital technology permeates the professional workplace;

The fact is, pen-and-paper examinations are becoming increasingly anachronistic. In an age when everyone uses a word processor, just how valid  are hand written examinations? Perhaps in response to this question, many institutions are beginning to move towards delivering essay style examinations online. The problem they often encounter is that when it comes to delivering essay and extended answer style examinations, most online testing systems are barely fit for purpose, being heavily geared towards the delivery of multiple choice questions and automated marking. This is why we developed this unique capability in ExamOnline.