How to run online exams safely

Not every online test needs the same security. A weekly practice quiz exists to help learners learn; it can be open, repeatable and marked instantly with the answers shown. An end-of-term exam that counts towards positions on the report card needs a fixed time, one attempt, and protection against copying.

Write down for each exam whether it is for practice, for a continuous assessment mark, or for a major result. Choose settings to match: the stricter the purpose, the stricter the settings.

• Opening time: the exam should open at the same moment for everyone, and not before.
• Time limit: long enough for a prepared learner, short enough that there is no time to look things up. For multiple choice, about one minute per question is a common starting point.
• A clock that cannot be changed: the timer should run on the server, so changing a phone’s clock does nothing.
• Autosave: answers must save as the learner goes, so a dropped connection does not cost them the exam.
• Automatic hand-in: when time runs out, whatever was saved is handed in.

The simplest protection is to give each learner a different paper. Shuffle the order of questions and the order of answer options for each learner. Two learners sitting side by side will then see question 5 as different questions, with the right answer in a different position.

Secure mode adds a second layer: the exam opens in full screen; copy, paste and right-click are blocked; and leaving the page counts as a warning. Set a small number of allowed warnings, such as three, after which the paper is handed in automatically. Tell learners about the rule before they start, so a warning is never a surprise.

A question whose answer can be found by typing it into a search engine in ten seconds is a weak online question. Prefer questions that ask learners to apply knowledge.

• Use numbers that differ from the textbook example, and ask for the working in a file upload when it matters.
• Use matching and ordering questions that test understanding of a process.
• Use fill-the-gap questions with a word bank that includes plausible wrong words.
• Keep one or two short essay questions, marked by the teacher, for higher-order thinking.
• Build a question bank over time, so each year’s paper is different.

For important exams written at home, the examiner can require learners to keep their camera on. Rather than recording video, it is enough to take a few still photos during the exam for the teacher to look at if there is a question. This respects learners’ privacy while discouraging someone else from sitting the exam.

Tell parents in advance, explain why, and explain who can see the photos and how long they are kept. Never use the camera for practice quizzes, and allow a learner without a working camera to sit the exam at school instead.

No web page can stop a learner from using a second phone, asking someone in the room, or reading notes taped to the wall. iPhones do not allow web pages to go full screen. Any supplier who promises cheating is impossible online is not telling the truth.

What a good system can do is detect and record: each time a learner leaves the page, exits full screen, or tries to copy or paste, it is logged with the time. The teacher sees this log beside the paper and decides what it means. For the highest-stakes exams, combine the online paper with supervision in a computer lab or classroom.

1. 1Let automatic questions mark themselves the moment the paper is handed in.
2. 2Mark essays and uploads in a queue, question by question, with comments.
3. 3Check any surprising automatic marks, and correct them if a question was unclear.
4. 4Release results when marking is complete, not before, so learners do not share answers with classmates who have not sat the exam.
5. 5Send the marks to the gradebook so they count towards the term result.

• Learners know the time, the rules and how many warnings they are allowed.
• Every learner has signed in successfully the day before.
• There is a teacher available by phone or WhatsApp during the exam.
• A plan exists for learners whose device fails: a later sitting or a paper copy.
• Results are released only after marking is complete.

IWAT online exams follow this guide by default: one attempt, a 60-minute server-kept timer, shuffled questions and options, secure mode with three warnings, the camera rule off unless the examiner turns it on, and results released after marking. Ten question types are available, and marks go straight to the gradebook. Online exams are part of the learning management system.