The Benefits of Online Assessment

Whether you are a corporation running certification programs or assessing training effectiveness, an awarding body looking to move away from paper or expand into a new market, a training company setting up a scalable end-of-course assessment, or a college modernizing your approach to exams, there are numerous benefits that arise from making the transition to online assessment.

The benefits of online assessment are welcomed by both the exam candidates themselves, and for the organization providing the assessment. It also provides benefits to student learning. The types of benefits gained from an online assessment will depend on the assessment software used, but one overriding positive outcome is that organizations greatly reduce the administrative burden of organizing and running exams. This is not an exhaustive list, but here are 12 key benefits of online assessment to consider:

1. Exam Candidates are used to Digital.

• Exam candidates can work on a computer in a way they are familiar with, rather than using pen and paper. This means that the student learning process is at a disadvantage if they do not have access to computer editing tools when writing e.g. cut and pasting text, or using a spreadsheet for accounts. It is hard to switch to pen and paper when you are used to working digitally with an online course, and it can be very tiring over long periods.

2. Reduced Administrative Burden.

• Organizations greatly reduce the administrative burden of organizing and running exams when it moves online. Printing and circulating exams on paper and organizing shipments of completed scripts to markers is a time-consuming and costly process. Hence, online assessments and offering students the chance to complete a test online are more timely and efficient.

3. Quicker to Mark and Issue Results.

• It is much quicker to mark online assessments and candidates welcome receiving results quickly. With auto-scorable questions, students can attain immediate feedback as well as ongoing feedback from their test results.

4. Collaborative Question Authoring.

• Online learning makes it easier for the examining body to manage all the tasks involved in creating exams. For the first time in over a decade, authoring questions can be done collaboratively, with clear workflows for review and approval of questions before they are added to the question bank. This allows the instructor to add new knowledge and ensure that they are giving students high-quality ability tests to help each individual learner.

5. Automated Test Assembly Tools.

• Once there is an approved bank of questions, exam papers can be created easily by selecting questions or by using automated tools e.g. LOFT, or linear-on-the-fly testing, to create automatic and randomized papers. You can read more about linear-on-the-fly testing here. Moreover, these multiple choice quizzes can efficiently test the knowledge of students and ensure to enhance their learning progress, as much as a formative assessment can. The mix of test tools ensures to enhance inductive logical thinking and improve student learning. From instant feedback from these tests, students can give the best impression through faster improvements.

6. On-Screen Marking Tools.

• Marking and moderating exam results and aptitude tests is streamlined and now, a systematic process thanks to online learning. Test results offer quick feedback as are much more secure and standardized when it is managed online. Read more about on-screen marking here.

7. It’s More Environmentally Friendly.

• The option to test online is much more environmentally friendly – with less paper, printing, and transport used overall.

8. Scalable with Worldwide Reach

• With online assessment, examining bodies can offer exams to candidates located over greater geographical areas, as they are not restricted to offering exams in physical test centers. This enables development for student learning across the world, which is the beginning of mass learning. Ensuring students are not limited to the tests that they can take, enhances the chance of education for those that seek further education development and new knowledge.

9. Increased Security.

• Another benefit of online assessment is greater security, as all online exam papers, candidate details, marks, and results are digitally stored. In addition, only the people who should be able to access online exam information can be granted the appropriate system access. It is much harder to control access, storage, and results in management with paper-based exams.

10. Flexibility to Take Exams Anywhere

• Remote invigilation, or online proctoring, gives candidates the ability to sit a secure and invigilated online assessment from the comfort of their home, which is less stressful and saves time and money going to a test center. Read more about the benefits of online proctoring here.

11. Assessment Reporting.

• The online assessment facilitates quick and clear reports on candidate results and progress. This makes it easier to give useful feedback to candidates on how they are doing, areas where they are strong, and what areas of learning require attention.

12. Cost Effectiveness.

• Online assessment is more cost-effective, due to the vast reduction in administrative time managing the whole exam creation, delivery, and marking processes. You can read more about other online exam cost-efficiencies below.

13. Assessments that are Accessible to All

• When you run online assessments, it is easier to adapt those assessments for candidates who have disabilities, such as changing font size, background color etc. It is also easier to add extra time for online candidates who need special considerations. To learn more visit this article on accessibility in assessment.

Benefits of Online Assessment with TestReach

Flexibility for Candidates

For the vast majority of exam candidates, time is precious. TestReach provides exam candidates full flexibility to take the online assessment in a location of their own choice and there is the option to offer an exam window, where online candidates also have the flexibility to select a suitable date and time. This capability can be a very significant competitive advantage, particularly for candidates in full-time employment.

Easy for Candidates to Use

Within TestReach, there is a very high priority placed on design and the online system is both intuitive and easy to use, even for less tech-savvy candidates. The online candidate experience from the initial enrolment email through to submitting their test on exam day is very straightforward, with multiple resources made available to fully explain the process. Within the online system, options are easily identified and accessed, with all candidates having access to a “test tutorial” in advance, which can be taken multiple times and allows the online candidates to become familiar with the system. Our whole focus is to ensure that on exam day exam-takers need only be concerned with their exam and not how to use a new system.

Online candidates also have the benefit of sitting their exam in a way that is in line with standard practices, where written answers can be easily edited and numerical analysis is carried out via a spreadsheet as opposed to on paper. Plus there is the added advantage of not having to write for long periods of time online, which can cause a lot of problems for certain categories of candidates.

Maintaining the Integrity of the Exam

When running exams across multiple geographies it can be very difficult to ensure that the same high levels of exam integrity apply in each region, particularly when relying on local partners or external venues. TestReach offers a level playing field to all candidates and ensures that the integrity of the exam is preserved irrespective of location. There is also full control over each exam paper, so the examining body decides exactly when and who sees the paper, plus all access is fully audit-trailed.

Create Better Assessments

TestReach offers the potential for a very rich user experience. With question types ranging from recording your voice through to plotting graphs, the whole testing experience is much more interactive and interesting. This can have a very significant impact on the effectiveness of your tests, where you can use TestReach’s 50+ question-types to assess the candidate’s ability to apply their knowledge, as opposed to just testing their knowledge levels at a particular point in time. It can also improve how your brand is perceived by your candidates and the quality of service that you offer. Even if most of your testing is currently based on text-only or MCQ-type questions, you have the option to easily expand this to include more comprehensive question types in the future.

There is also the option to turn on confidence-ratings and associate questions with one or more learning outcomes. Both of these features can allow you to better asses the quality of your training and education service. If most candidates answer questions on a particular learning outcome correctly but were not confident in their answer, they were effectively guessing, which raises questions about how the course material was presented.

Significantly Reduced Administration Overhead

There is enormous administration overhead associated with sourcing and managing test centres, particularly across multiple countries. There is then the additional effort associated with actually scheduling exams and managing candidate attendance, cancellations and re-schedules, which becomes all the more complex when test centres are in different time zones. TestReach completely removes this overhead and allows all exams to be scheduled centrally with fully automated candidate notifications and procedures.

There is also the capability to set up affiliates or training centre partners, who can manage the enrolment process for their own specific candidate base, without having access to any of your actual exam papers. This decentralizes the administration process and can be very effective if you work with third parties who enrol candidates into your tests.

A Personalised Service

At TestReach we pride ourselves on the levels of customer service we provide. We work with our customers as partners and provide lots of advice, guidance, and best practice based on our extensive experience. Moving exams online, and/or rolling out remote invigilation is a big step, which requires planning and the right approach. Our experienced consultants are on hand to help you every step of the way, in line with the specific needs that you have and the approach that you want to take.