Head of of Ofqaul asks: why aren't students using computers in exams?

[GrumbleDook]

Part of the problem with controlled assessment is not just the technical "how do we lock down machines?" but also the management of the rooms, the sharing of resources (which some exams need) the staff used for invigilation, any requirement for ongoing technical support ...

 

And the list of barriers is extensive even if you school has decided to go down this route ...

Not enough computers

Departments not willing to share access to computer suites

Clashing exams

Lack of invigilators

Filtering issues

Poor internet connections

Inconsistent requirements between exams (never mind the difference between exam boards, the same board might have different requirements for different exams!)

 

None of these are insurmountable ... but they do take some thought, some planning and a fair bit communication.

No exam board has a guide about how to manage this within a school yet. What a surprise.

[john]

Part of the problem with controlled assessment is not just the technical "how do we lock down machines?" but also the management of the rooms, the sharing of resources (which some exams need) the staff used for invigilation, any requirement for ongoing technical support ...

 

And the list of barriers is extensive even if you school has decided to go down this route ...

Not enough computers

Departments not willing to share access to computer suites

Clashing exams

Lack of invigilators

Filtering issues

Poor internet connections

Inconsistent requirements between exams (never mind the difference between exam boards, the same board might have different requirements for different exams!)

 

None of these are insurmountable ... but they do take some thought, some planning and a fair bit communication.

No exam board has a guide about how to manage this within a school yet. What a surprise.

 

Your telling me about that, to say I raised this last year before all this kicked off for us I said it will be a pain to deal with if we don't have it as a full college plan, and lots of discussion and info now IE this time last year, I was told oh we only have 1 subject affected, I said that won't be right and short of going through everyones silibuses myself I was told no its very much just one subject. How I wish I recorded that meeting on tape as we are up to abotu 200 user accounts for controlled assessment and everything wants more and strange needs even changing by the lesson! We can no longer get enough IT rooms free as everyone has left it to the last minute, subjects that said they don't want IT and will do it by hand have now gone oh but we have some students that are slow at writing can you find me 30hrs time in an IT room over the next 3 weeks etc... its a nightmare. So much so I've thrown these issues at our Timetabler and we are going to have a college policy on it that if you want IT to do your CA next year you need to submit your silibus that says you MUST use a computer to the SLT in advance of summer and show where it says its compulsory, all those where its compulsory will get planned into the timetable and rooming, those who its optional for will have to wait in the queue until the main school timetable is done, confirmed and cast in stone, IF they can be fitted in then fine however we won't be having this en-mass mess around next year its just silly.

 

They will also need to provide me with the exact details of the CA requirements in advance to help me plan and support them, these are needed before summer to allow me to setup and test them all over this summer so we can be ready for September, this includes things like Internet Access, Shared Areas, Pooled Resource Banks, file access, email access, printing access etc.... as this has changed from lessons to lesson in some subjects resulting in the pre-planned CA accounts not being suitable any longer as someone has decided that they can have Internet after being told a week before that they couldn't etc.... All I can say is thank the lord for Smoothwall and its infinite flexibility!

[GNewnham]

The additional problem to the controlled assessments is that pupils who "usual way of working is to use a wordprocessor" may still do so.

 

John, this will override any syllabus which does not say that it must be done on a computer. Any parent requesting a computer for their child for exams would have to be given one as we (the Exams officers) now dont have any means to say "no". A further complication is that extra time also applies to controlled assessments which means that if the whole class is doing a 30 hour project spread accross their lessons over some months, a few students may actually have 37.5 hours to do this same project. How does the teacher administer/ monitor / invigilate the further 7.5 hours and what do they do with the rest of the class during this time?

 

This first year has been a lot of work. It will be interesting to see what results are gained after the marking!

[john]

The additional problem to the controlled assessments is that pupils who "usual way of working is to use a wordprocessor" may still do so.

 

John, this will override any syllabus which does not say that it must be done on a computer. Any parent requesting a computer for their child for exams would have to be given one as we (the Exams officers) now dont have any means to say "no". A further complication is that extra time also applies to controlled assessments which means that if the whole class is doing a 30 hour project spread accross their lessons over some months, a few students may actually have 37.5 hours to do this same project. How does the teacher administer/ monitor / invigilate the further 7.5 hours and what do they do with the rest of the class during this time?

 

This first year has been a lot of work. It will be interesting to see what results are gained after the marking!

 

That's interesting, have you got a source for that as I've not come across that, admittedly I am not an exams officer but I would be interested in seeing it and then I can take it to my Exams Officer so she is aware of this potential issue as if we get a demanding parent that knows that we cannot say no you cannot wordproces your exams we could have an absolute disaster on our hands which we need to ensure we are ready for if it happened.

 

Extra time has also been a big issue for us as staff haven't got time to supervise the students under the same conditions for those extra 7+ hours which is the common time, and how are you catching up when little johnny has missed 3 lessons due to illness etc....

 

It really needs a lot more thinking than what is being done by most people I think.

[GNewnham]

It appears in the JCQ document "Instructions for Conducting examinations 2011" on page 18 where it says (highlighted in yellow as it is a change for this year)

 

Word processors

 

Centres are allowed to provide a word processor to a candidate where it is their normal way of working, unless an awarding body’s specification says otherwise.

 

Previously the writing speed of a pupil had to be assessed and determined whether they would be able to work faster on a word processor. Access arrangements had to be submitted for each case in advance of th exam cycle and cover sheets added for each exam quoting the access info. Now all of that has fallen away and all answers to exams may be submitted either written or produced on a word processor and printed.

 

We have already had our first parent asking for their child to use a computer instead of writing. I think this is the tip of the iceberg.

 

It is going to cause so many problems - how will we be able to manage hundreds of wordprocessor users at the same time? We have already gone the thin client route and have a room configured with about 18 machines. However, the problem of what would happen in the event of a power failure (which is not really a problem with a laptop with a battery) is still one which remains unsolved.

 

Would be good to hear of any other solutions that other schools have implemented.

ICE 10-11.doc

[woodham]

if we can just get microsoft to upscale there multipoint server then it should be possible to have a closed network to run the exam systems on

(i know we could just do the same with normal server but i want a reason to try this)

[joe90bass]

 

It is going to cause so many problems - how will we be able to manage hundreds of wordprocessor users at the same time? We have already gone the thin client route and have a room configured with about 18 machines. However, the problem of what would happen in the event of a power failure (which is not really a problem with a laptop with a battery) is still one which remains unsolved.

 

.

 

If your terminal server is on a UPS then the pupils session will still be running. Though this is only useful for those short power cuts/blips. Currently we only have a few pupils who use a Word Processor, and they're supervised by our LSAs, what woul happen if this increases drastically I don't know.

 

I know EG have already spoken to one of the top dogs about online exams, maybe we all need to keep badgering the boards/JCQ and they will eventually listen. having different software for different boards, with updates that can require a reinstall - last years WJEC (secureassess) being one - is not feasible long term......

[moodyA]

On the one hand I think that to test a student's understanding it should be possible to have paper based exams, it's been working for the past few hundred years and society hasn't yet reverted to the dark ages because of it

I can only see an advantage of using a computer based exam if you want to challenge the students more, or if you want to probe a students detailed understanding of something requiring elaborate tables, graphs, or perhaps 3D mathematical models for students of engineering or architecture for instance.

If PC based exams are merely digitized versions of paper based exams and don't add anything new then I think the upgrade is a waste of time. It should be really innovative.