EduBrite’s CAT Mock tests event is a new experiment to conduct open online exams in social learning network. A social learning network allows multiple learning communities to coexist on the single platform and users collaborate online for learning needs. Online learning activities are typically supported in the form of “forum”, “notes”, “ask a doubt” or “share a lesson”.
More recently, social learning platforms (e.g. edu2.0, learnhub) started providing online testing integrated with social learning which allows community members to contribute and share online tests. The tests (also called quizzes in some systems) in these systems not only a dead html or pdf (which is how it exist in most web sites today), but they are interactive forms which allow students to take tests online, and are integrated with backend learning management systems to generate instant assessment of the student’s performance. Students can share their test attempts with community and compare ranks with each other.
EduBrite is providing what could be seen as natural progression of this online testing in social learning environment by allowing educators to conduct realtime online exams. The difference between an exam and online tests mentioned before is primarily the event’ness associated with the exam and the element of competition. An exam has a specific begin and end date and is taken by all students concurrently.
Online exam comprises of tests which are contributed by community. Exams are subscribed by the students using common subscription mechanism on the web such as invite. The subscription management depends on the kind of exam being conducted.
The current CAT Mock Tests event on mba.edubrite.com comprises three tests and offered as free subscription model. Students just need to login to the site and subscribe to the event which is running at that time. Once subscribed they can appear in the tests anytime they want from any place they can have internet access. They could take the test from a cyber cafe or from their home and if needed can pause the test and resume when convenient. Naturally this format is very convenient for the students as well as well ideally suited for conducting mock exams before the real exam (similar to opinion polls before the real polls in elections). Mock exams in a social network can provide ranking and percentile feedback to students among a wider base than what any specific school or training institute can provide. And naturally the comparison aspect in this format is closer to the real exam,
So where is the catch…
Let’s look at some of the challenges in conducting online exams in social learning network:
1. Unproctored environment, so is prone to abuse
2. Unknown and variety of operating environments under which test takers may appear in the exams (browsers, operation systems, hardware such as notebook, PDA, smart phones), so difficult to provide consistent user experience to all test takers
3. Challenge in running the exam for a fixed duration due to various technological reasons which could cause outage in specific geographical regions
It is obvious that technological constraint today will not allow conducting formal exams (in their current format) in social network environment. But despite those constraints I see a lot of promise here, especially when it comes to providing realtime, actionable and much more accurate feedback to students and help them prepare for the final exam. It is even better if the final exam is also conducted online by the specific exam board as students can practice their online test taking skills upfront. It may even be possible to review some exam formats and design them to suite the delivery via unproctored social network environment using new methods of test delivery and combination of various security and privacy advancements in future.
Check out mba.edubrite.com to experience this online exam happening somewhere in the cloud today.
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