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Experience with Language Online Exam
Dr. Ishita M. Badiyani
Asst. Professor
L.N.K. College of Education
Patan
India
Abstract
The introduction of Online Examination in the teaching-learning field is considered as one of the major steps taken to improve and strengthen the quality of evaluation. The development of network technology polices has given the possibility to conduct the exams online. The paper is aimed at studying examinees perspectives towards a language online exam prepared by the researcher herself for English grammar. To study the perspectives a survey was developed based on the areas like time given to finish the test, content of the exam, invigilator, internet connection & electricity related factors, Language used in the test and overall experience of the test.
The analysis of the survey indicated that the examinees were quite positive about the online exam. Some of them faced electricity and internet connection problems which need to be addressed. The researcher found that students are satisfied with the time, content of the exam, type of questions and invigilation of the exam. The evidence seems to indicate that it can be successfully used for language learning process.
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RATIONALE
As trainees of B.Ed. of my college appear in on line exam of SCOPE- an online exam taken by ESOL of the Cambridge University, UK every year and past students had faced difficulties while appearing in this exam due to new experience of giving the online exam I decided to prepare one online exam myself. After preparing the exam using open source software the researcher tried to examine the examinees perspective by surveying them. INTRODUCTION
The boundaries of integration of ICT in teaching learning process have been expanding day to day. The online exam running on a browser could be considered as major paradigm shift to improve and strengthen the quality of evaluation. The development of network technology polices has given the possibility to conduct the exams online. Online exam has its advantages and disadvantages. Online exams save time and energy of teachers at general. It supports the on the spot result of Skinner‟s theory. Rotations of questions are generated automatically. Various websites give the open source softwares to develop an online exam .
BACKGROUND
Meyen and his colleagues (2002) defined online exam as „The process used to measure certain aspects of information for a set purpose where the assessment is delivered via a computer connected to a network‟. E-learning assessment options are little different from those routinely employed in face-to-face instruction. Jung, I.Y proposes that online exam is mediated by group cryptography using remote monitoring and control of ports and input.
Automatic grading is part of the online exam. It also saves the time of the teacher from tedious work of writing the identical feedback on each and every answer sheets. Standard comments could be put for responding wrong answers. The order of questions, and the order of multiple-choice answers could be randomized, which makes it harder for students to copy each other‟s work.Students can spend more time in thinking, and less time in writing as students have to select only form the multiple choice answers. As students don‟t have a chance to see others, the online exam increases privacy. Online exams not only save time but also save paper and in turn save money.
THE TEST
The researcher prepared an online exam with software available on net. She prepared
the questions about English grammar. Questions like fill in gap with or without options, choose an answer, questions of comprehension and correcting the sentences are asked.
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Content selected for the test are active-passive voice, direct indirect speech, vocabulary, use of tenses and comprehension of the language.
Time taken for the test, internet connection, invigilator, electricity related factors, Language used in the test, content of the test and overall experience of the test are the crucial factors for data collection.
METHODOLOGY
To fulfill the objective „to study the examinee‟s perspective towards the language online exam‟ survey method was applied. The aim of the survey was to find perspectives of examinees about the online exam. A survey containing 12 questions with yes/no answers was developed to address the following areas:
invigilation examination conduction -internet connection - electricity - other disturbances The language Type of questions
Content of the test SAMPLE
As this study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of language online
examination in the B.Ed. program, Captioning specialization at English grammar. The data was collected from the purposive sample being examinees of English method studying in the same college where the researcher is working.
ANALYSIS & FINDINGS
When the questionnaire was analyzed, the following are found.
Q-1 : According to the majority of the male examinee and female examinee exam structure was not clumsy.
Q-2 : A majority of the male examinee and all female examinee are of the opinion that demonstration of the test has been useful.
Q-3 : A decisive majority of the male examinee and female examinee believe that the time and scheduling details of the exam has been conveyed properly.
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Q-5 : Majority of the male examinee and many of the female examinee faced internet connection problems during the test.
Q-6 : Near half of the female and male examinees faced disturbance.
Q-7 : Majority of the male examinee and many of the female examinee did not find instructions of the test difficult to understand.
Q-8 : It is seen that near half of female examinee and of male examinee faced electricity problems.
Q-9 : It is seen that a decisive majority of the male examinee and female examinee are satisfied with the content of the test.
Q-10 : Majority of both the type of examinee are satisfied with the type of questions of the test.
Q-11 : Most of them are of the opinion that the invigilator attended the technical problems during my test whenever called
Q-12 : A very less number of female and male examinee are not satisfied with the overall test experience.
No significant difference between the answers of the male and female examinees was found.
DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
An Online exam has many advantages. In this study, students had shown positive attitude towards it. Though some of them had faced the internet connectivity problems and disturbance problems, but overall they seem to prefer it.
The main limitation of this study is that it concerned one e-exam and that has been conducted at one university with one variable i.e. gender. Hence, replication in more varied settings, with other variables being stream, examination centre, age group etc. including other e-exams is required in order to generalize its findings. Limitations also include the small sample size to generalize the findings.
Moreover, the study only examined on-line from the examinee' perspective. The next steps involve reporting on findings concerning other stakeholders, as well as an integrated analysis of all the findings.
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CONCLUSION
The paper analyzed the exam from the examinee‟s perspective. The analysis of the survey indicated that the examinees face electricity, internet connection problems which needs to be addressed. The researcher found that students are satisfied with the time, type of questions and invigilation, manual form and schedule conveying strategies adopted by the exam. Overall, the examinees were found quite positive about the online exam. The evidence seems to indicate that it can be successfully used for language learning process.
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References:
Jung, I.Y “Enhanced Security for Online Exams Using Group Cryptography” IEEE vol52, issue: 3 Page(s): 340 – 349 Aug 2009. Reluctant
Meyen, E.L., Aust, R. J., Bui, Y. N., & Isaacson, R. (2002). Assessing and monitoring student progress in an e-learning personnel preparation environment. Teacher education and special education, 25 (2). 187-198.
