Introduction

Online exams gain popularity among educational institutes as well as among students. Both students and educators have different pros and cons to online exams. However, some statistics have shown that student engagement is decreasing in the online examination. In response, teachers, educators, and educational organisations like the online exam software. Because it reduces the teacher’s workload and the administration process of any exams. It also enhances efficiency to improve student-personalised learning.

Technology advancement has had an exceptional impact on online exam software. Online exams have become a very impactful mode of evaluation. It offers convenience and flexibility to both educators and students. It is challenging to enhance student engagement during exams. But there is some online exam software on the market that can lead us to the target of increasing engagement.

In this blog, we will talk about the challenges students may face that reduce student engagement and how to resolve them. However, first, let’s see what the challenges are.

Challenges of student engagement in Online exams

Online exams have different and unique challenges compared to traditional in-person exams. The offline exam requires a person to tutor during exam hours. According to some scientific research, a teacher or educator can only focus on 30 students at a time during exam hours in the examination hall. It can lead to the high cost of the examination.

However, online exams also need a tutor per exam hall. Because the absence of physical presence can lead to the distraction of students and a lack of accountability, It might be possible for students to try to access external resources and cheat. Moreover, it increases the integrity of the assessment process and educational institute. Here, student engagement is mainly focused on how we can reduce student distraction while giving the exams and create the most effective exam environment.

As we see, if there is no interaction with instructors, it might happen that online exams feel isolating and impersonal. It can result in decreased student engagement. However, if you, as an educational organisation, want to address these issues, ConductExam’s online exam software is the best solution to secure your testing environment.

Tips to maximise Online exams and student engagement

1) Proctoring Services

Nowadays, online exam software must have an in-built feature for proctoring services. It includes video-audio monitoring, screen recording, and a lock browser option.

These features ensure that students are closely monitored throughout the exam. It helps when a student is not focusing on the screen. This encourages accuracy in solving questions.

In addition, there are some advanced features like images and finger authentication. But it does not work for student engagement. However, it helps to create a more advanced exam environment. When students know that they are being watched, it helps them to focus on the exam, thereby increasing engagement.

2) Randomised Question Banks

Many online examination systems can help educational institutes, colleges, or schools create a question bank and generate randomised question sets for each student.

However, this technique is used in both offline and online exams. And it is very effective in offline exams. So, using the online examination prevents students from sharing questions and answers with other students. Because randomised questions are used, Students read questions with full focus, think critically, and answer them.

3) Gamification Techniques

Gamification is one of the online exam software trends in 2023. It is the technique of using gaming elements in the examination. This technique uses game designs to enhance examination experiences. It uses elements like leaderboards, badges, and points for correct answers.

However, it fosters healthy competition among students. It increases engagement in online examinations.

4) Adaptive Difficulty Levels

These techniques are surely going to encourage the market in the future. Online exam systems can adjust the difficulty of questions based on students’ responses.

However, we can achieve this with AI (artificial intelligence) and Machine Learning. If a student answers correctly, the system presents a more challenging question. And if students continue to struggle with more questions in line, then the software offers easier questions. Surely this is going to increase student engagement during exams.

5) Mobile Accessibility

Students can access online exams from anywhere. Surely it is going to increase student engagement. Students do not have to sit at one particular place with a stable internet connection. Educational organisations can create an application and incorporate it with online exam software. Mobile-friendly exam platforms enable students to engage with assessments on their devices.

6) Per Question Timer

Software like ConductExam’s online exam software allows educators to set time limits for each question. This technique helps to create an exam that prevents time from being wasted on a particular question. It helps increase students’ focus on the exam. Also, students are not going to search for entire questions on the internet because of time limitations.

7) Immediate Feedback through AI

Students can engage more with the feedback that is immediately generated by the AI. Artificial Intelligence helps to understand the criteria of the students. What are his or her thinking capabilities, ability to answer questions, etc.? This response not only helps with learning but also increases student engagement.

8) Performance Analytics

Exam Software like Conductexam generates different types of reports on student performance. As we saw earlier, education institutes can incorporate these reports with AI and identify trends, question difficulties, and areas where students struggle the most. The main aim of this feature is to enhance the learning style and increase student engagement.

Conclusion

Every educational institute wants to create a healthy exam environment that engages more and more students. It may be challenging to conduct online exams, but with the help of technological advancements like AI, we can create a fair assessment environment.

However, Technology enhances online exams in many ways, including increasing student participation, improving understanding, and improving results. ConductExam offers online exam software that helps create an effective online examination that caters to all types of educational institutes like schools, colleges, coaching institutes, etc. It also engages different types of students in the examination.