After the chaos of the Covid-19 pandemic, the world had to adjust and shift itself according to many things. Everyone had to adapt to the new ways of living. All of the sectors have changed immensely after the Covid-19 pandemic. Similarly, the educational sector also had to go through a lot of changes. Technology has helped everyone during these times to make things better and easier. The educational sector has adopted many technological changes and has improved the learning and teacher experience of students and teachers.
Online examination was made common during these times and many institutes are continuing this practice. Through this, the exams of the students are conducted through online platforms. The exams are somewhat similar to physical written exams but there are still many differences between them. They are still conducting online exams as they find it convenient. However, along with many advantages, there are also disadvantages.
Some of the major advantages and disadvantages of these exams are:
Advantages
Environment Friendly
Nowadays, everyone must try their best to promote environmentally friendly elements in society. Online examinations promote the protection of trees. It saves the excessive use and wastage of papers during the exam season. It saves the waste gathered from printing errors.
Economical
This type of exam helps in saving a lot of money. They are economical as they will be conducted online and there will be no printing costs and logistics costs. Pen-and-paper exam requires invigilators, classrooms, electricity, resources, and many other things that result in costing too. Through online exams, a lot of money is saved.
Time Saver
They save the time of both the teachers and students. The teachers do not have to spend a lot of time grading the papers and the students do not have to waste their time and energy by traveling to their exam centers. The online system grades papers automatically which relieves the stress on teachers and the students can attempt their exams from anywhere which saves their time of students.
Promotion of Technology
It became difficult for everyone to completely rely on technology. However, these exams have continuously plugged both teachers and students into technology and they are now familiar with it. They know how to regulate it and use it to their advantage.
Secured Platforms
Papers prepared on online platforms have an almost 0% chance of leaking out. Physical papers might get leaked the night before exams but there are very chances for an online paper to get leaked among students. The systems are automatic and generate different questions in different attempts.
Convenience
These exams are convenient for both students and teachers. The teachers can easily prepare the paper through automatic systems, they can easily evaluate student performance through the systems, and they can easily communicate with the students. It is convenient for the students as the students can easily attempt their paper from anywhere and at the time which is most suitable for them.
Disadvantages
Difficulty with technology
Everyone cannot suddenly adapt to changes. People need time to understand the new elements. Institutes keep on experimenting with new online platforms and keep on developing which results in confusion among students and teachers. Both of them find it difficult to keep on learning and adapting to the frequent changes.
Internet problems
Students face this problem and there are times when they are not able to submit an assignment, attempt an exam, or have excess to an academic resource at the time due to a weak internet connection.
Grading Problems
While submitting assignments and exams that are lengthy, then it may require the teacher to read the whole content rather than leaving it for an automatic system to evaluate it. This may result in getting lower grades.
Cheating
No matter what the educational institutions and the teachers try, the students always find the best possible way to get higher grades by cheating. There are cases where a group of friends attempted one paper, where students shared their screens with other friends, where a friend told their other friends about the questions that came in exams, where they found a convenient solution by searching for taking my exam online on the search engine, and where the student opened tabs of educational resources and cheated on them. Many students go for the famous and reliable option of searching for take my exam online on the internet.
Every educational institution should take care of the pros and cons of online examinations before introducing and conducting the system among students and teachers.