online test

Students (architecture department) at Wentworth Institute of Technology taking an online test…

There was a test run previous to the day of the actual test: students had to log in, answer a question that read more or less like this: “Do you think you are the best student at Wenworth?” They score 100 points when answering “Yes”. No comment.

The trial tested if students could log in… but it did not go further than that: on the day of the test, many had problems seeing the images that were complementing the questions, a problem which could have been prevented.

The cool thing though is that students would get a random questionnaire… questions were shuffled or different, so none had the exact same test. Maybe this did prevent cheating. Someone had to check that they closed IM and iTunes (though the computer is theirs… even when standing behind them, which I remember it being rather uncomfortable, professors cannot see every click) and had to stay in the room while students were taking the test.

The test was 1 hour and 20 minutes long. Students could take it as many time as they wanted to, though only the first finished test counted. They received their grade right after completing the test. Automation greatly cuts down on the time professors spend grading, though preparing the test takes a little bit longer… and failing technologies, or panicking students not seing an image can greatly augment their involvement.