rethink: Does COVID-19 spell the end of exams as we know them?

Words / James Sutton

Packing sports halls full of nervous students was never going to work amid an airborne pandemic. But what if in-person exams never really worked anyway? Thankfully, new digital tools and changing attitudes to assessment mean that the disruption caused by COVID-19 might actually be an opportunity to build a kinder, fairer and more “authentic” exam experience. Here’s what that might look like…

01) The art of the possible

How about giving schools and teachers the autonomy to set their own grading system

When COVID-19 hit last year, education providers scrambled to come up with alternatives to exams. The result? A mishmash of teacher-assigned grades and hastily assembled online tests. In Ireland, though, a pragmatic, bottom-up approach prevailed. For the Junior Certificate final exams, schools were allowed to simply provide a report outlining what each learner had achieved, with an assessed grade from the teacher. Schools had total autonomy over how they arrived at those grades, with most opting for either final presentations or open-book tests. According to a survey of school leaders by the Economic and Social Research Institute, both teachers and learners appreciated this freedom – especially the extra scope for problem-solving, critical thinking and self-directed learning – but three-quarters still felt that students had “disengaged” when the exams were cancelled.

02) Space-age testing

Professor Anthony Crider favours “epic finale” experiences

Technology really is a wonderful thing, and Anthony Crider, professor of astrophysics at Elon University, North Carolina, has been putting it to good use in his end-of-year assessments. He has been trying out various “experiential exams”, including role-playing debates, greater use of video and VR, and even an “epic finale” puzzle based on 2001: A Space Odyssey (complete with an inscrutable alien monolith). Crider calls his experiential exams “golden” because they require students to “demonstrate their understanding of a topic rather than merely answering questions about it on a piece of paper”.

03) Design your own assessment

In Galway, Ireland, they’re trying out creative case-study videos based on course material

Mechanics and applied mathematics sound a little dry, right? Not if you’re being taught by Dr Giuseppe Zurlo at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Having noticed that his first-year students were struggling to engage with the subject while learning from home, Zurlo introduced ten-minute weekly slots called “Mechanics Tales” – a series of real-world case studies taking learners beyond the abstract concepts on the syllabus. The idea was an immediate success. Then, instead of an exam, Zurlo challenged his students to create their own Mechanics Tale exploring any topic in the module, in the form of a two-minute video, a PowerPoint presentation or a scripted text (depending on their access to technology). They were graded on their understanding and creativity rather than the production values. “The result was astounding,” Zurlo says. “The whole class genuinely engaged with this new type of test, proposing kaleidoscopic, deep and funny tales.”

04) Ongoing evaluation

Sally Brown advocates ongoing feedback, self-reflection and an end to “sudden death” examination

For Sally Brown, emerita professor of higher education at Leeds Beckett University, exams are too often based on “mistaken premises”: that all students should be ready for assessment at the same time, or that any departure from strict exam conditions simply permits cheating. “I’ve heard people say, ‘Oh, we’ve got to do an exam because we rented the exam hall six months in advance’,” she says. “Often there’s no real reason why it’s got to be done in that way.” Instead, she’d rather see assessments built around compassion for learners, with a focus on ongoing feedback, self-reflection and putting an end to the “sudden death” expectation that students perform on a single occasion.

05) Takeaway exams

At Brunel University, students have been trusted with “take-home” exams

When exams were suddenly cancelled last year, lots of education providers turned to third-party proctoring and invigilation tools to help them retain control over their new online tests. Brunel University, West London, went in the opposite direction. About 20 per cent of students were already doing bring-your-own-device exams when COVID-19 hit, so it was a no-brainer for exams to become a fully open-book, take-home affair, without locked-down devices or remote proctoring. Some questions were revised for suitability and some assessments were changed to include longer pieces of work, but, fundamentally, the university took a leap of faith and trusted its learners.

Embrace the disruption

Here’s an interesting thought… A 2007 study found that the 1968 student riots in France, which resulted in the cancellation of in-person exams and the lowering of the pass thresholds, actually enabled more learners to pursue extra years of higher education, resulting in increased occupational levels and wages in the long term. And that effect is even visible in the educational performance of those learners’ children. Who knows what effect COVID-19 will have?