Comparison between invigilated and non-invigilated online exams

Abstract

Amanullah M., Patel A., Zaman G. S. and Mohanna K

This paper compares the invigilated online exam with the non-invigilated „open book-open webâ�?�? (OBOW) examinations. An intranet based invigilated and another internet based non-invigilated OBOW exam was conducted, wherein 116 students participated in it. The result obtained in the invigilated exam was compared with the non-invigilated exam taken by the same students. The percentage of marks obtained by the students were graded as “A” for 90-100% marks, “B”, “C”, “D” and “F” for 80-89%, 70-79%, 60-69% and 0-60% respectively. Some students were placed under ungraded category (“U” grade), as they faced some technical problems during the exam. Cheating was assessed based upon the time at which the student started taking the exam, the total time taken to complete it and the marks they scored. The results indicated that there was enormous difference in the results between the two types of exams. The number of students scoring “A” and “B” grades were very high in the non-invigilated exam as against the invigilated exam. A few cheating cases were observed in both the types of exams, which is unavoidable in any circumstance. About 4 students faced technical problems in the online non-invigilated internet based exams. The technical problems encountered were loss of internet connection, slowing of the internet connection due to traffic congestion in the network, hanging of the userâ�?�?s computer system. It was concluded that noninvigilated online exams would be better in accessing the studentâ�?�?s ability to understand the subject and reproduce it, as compared to invigilated exams.