Online Assessment
Every year, we deliver more than 160 online assessments to a total of over 17K participants. Over 50 of these are formal University exams
...great expertise in designing and delivering online assessment, enhancing the quality and reliability of assessment, and saving considerable amounts of academic time in marking in the process.
- University of Oxford Digital Education Strategy
As far as we’re aware, we are the only Division routinely running online assessment. Assessments include: self-test quizzes; tests whose completion is a requirement for entry into practical classes; formative assessments sat under exam conditions; and open book assessments available to students over a period of a few days. However, over 50 of these are formal University exams, run with the help of Examination Schools’ invigilators.
Why Online Assessment?
- Marking is instantaneous
- Easy availability of extensive question performance data:
- Examiners can correct results for problem questions immediately
- Problem questions can be identified and omitted from, or rewritten for, future assessments
- Self-test and revision quizzes, with immediate feedback, are available 24/7 from anywhere with an internet connection
- Computer-marking is fairer, removing inter-/intra-marker variability
- Question banks can be used for both summative and formative assessment
- High quality images can be included at lower cost than on paper. Audio, video, and even simulations and complex visualisations are also available to question authors.
Security & Reliability
Our agreement with the Proctors, allowing online University examinations, specifies the availability of a number of contingency measures, including, the provision of paper copies of an exam in the event of a power failure or similar worst case scenarios.
We run QuestionMark Perception, which is widely used in UK HE, on high-availability Oxford servers and, for reasons of security, access is only possible from machines on the Oxford network or those connected to it virtually using the University’s VPN service.
Question Types
Perception offers a huge variety of question types. These allow the incorporation of images, equations and even audio and video. However, in practice, the majority of questions used in examinations, and assessments preparing students for those examinations, are variations of standard five-part single best answer/multiple choice questions.
I have just been playing with it properly for the first time and ITS GREAT! - Professor in Biochemistry, 2013
If the question types offered by Perception don’t meet your needs, we will be able to help you with something that does. In the past we have successfully explored the marking of free-test answers (using Intelligent Assessment software). We also run a pre-arrival maths test for Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences students which uses QTIWorks. This allows us to write questions to which students give algebraic answers and which can be made to understand: answers in different units; significant figures and decimal places. Numerical questions can also be made which will randomly generate values according to rules set by the author. These allow a problem of the same type to be attempted multiple times or the problem to be given to different students but with different values and hence answers.
Question Banks
I wanted to let you know what a difference [the Question Banks have] made to the examiners' job of setting questions this year.- Course Administrator, 2012
QuestionBanks are databases of all the available online assessment questions for a subject. Questions can be filtered by syllabus coverage, question type and the assessment(s) in which they appeared. Detailed question analysis data are also available, enabling examiners to consider past performance when choosing exam questions. The banks are secure and only accessible to examiners.
- Question Bank User Guide (Oxford SSO required)
- Creating questions for a Question Bank (Oxford SSO required)
The Process
MSDLT will work with you to ensure that your assessment is delivered successfully but a typical process is shown below:
Exams - What you can expect from us and what we expect from you
WE WILL | YOU WILL | |
AT LEAST EIGHT WEEKS BEFORE |
Advice Training Question Bank |
Room booking
Invigilator booking Check with us
We will then:
|
AT LEAST FOUR WEEKS BEFORE |
Confirm details with you Prepare for paper upload |
Check we have correct details Upload your paper OR enter your questions into the exam system, as agreed |
AT LEAST TWO WEEKS BEFORE |
Create your online exam paper Iterate Getting paper to Exam Schools |
Check paper Communicate with Exam Schools
Getting paper to Exam Schools OR Remind us to upload the exam to the secure site so it can be accessed by Exam Schools staff and tell us who the contact person is. |
AT LEAST ONE WEEK BEFORE |
Create paper versions |
Invigilator instructions List of candidates Communicating with candidates
|
ON THE DAY |
Technical support Bring with us
|
Administrative support Examiner attendance Bring with you
|
AFTER THE EXAM |
Results Analysis Question Bank |
Get your results |
This table is also available as a downloadable Word document (Oxford SSO required).
MSDLT Guides
For those already involved in online assessment at Oxford, you can find our guides to the various aspects here:
- What we and you can expect (Oxford SSO required)
- Creating standard assessment questions (Oxford SSO required)
- Creating an assessment (Oxford SSO required)
- Creating additional question types for assessments (Oxford SSO required)
- Adjusting questions within the Authoring Manager (Oxford SSO required)
- Creating paper copies of your assessment (Oxford SSO required)
- Revising Questions (Oxford SSO required)
- Quick checklist for creating questions (Oxford SSO required)
- Adding special characters in Perception (Oxford SSO required)
- Checking exam is set up correctly – an introductory video in less than a minute.
FAQs
Online Assessment: What is the best question type? How many options should students choose from?
Online Assessment: Standard setting - helping to create a defensible assessment
Online Assessment: What results and analysis can I expect from my online assessment?