The concept of cloud-based exams is gaining ground with the adoption of online tests,says Ketan Kapoor
Cloud computing is a buzzword at present and is very likely to continue being one in the future as well. Its application in any area of work promises much higher levels of efficiency and cost-effectiveness than otherwise possible. The most obvious reason for this differentiation is that it doesn’t require enterprises to invest in or manage a physical IT infrastructure, a majority of their key business processes can be automated through a digital platform.
Cloud environments allow online testing platforms to accommodate a large number of students located remotely and maximise the cloud system's processing power as and when required. Online exams can also follow an adaptive pattern of testing with the help of analytical tools, wherein the system will adapt to the patterns within the students' responses. This feature is critical in designing question papers that are unique for each person taking the test, meaning that no questions are repeated. As educational institutes can test the candidates without having to physically verify which candidate receives which set, it significantly reduces the likelihood of cheating. Online cloud-based testing can also allow a vast number of resources and multiple references to being used for the purpose of creating multi-level tests and different question types. Moreover, examination conductors can also run simulations, for instance, to test the coding skills of engineering students. Doing this offline is an extremely inefficient process, as a pen-and-paper based testing format only ends up wasting resources and limiting the extent to which students can apply their knowledge effectively to answer questions.
Since most entrance exams are usually conducted on a massive scale, online testing allows greater flexibility in timing and scheduling the test. For instance, GMAT aspirants are allowed to take the exam at a time and place of their choosing. As a result, the reach of such competitive tests can be much higher than offline exams and enable participation from a large number of students who don’t need to travel long distances, simply to appear for a test that takes a few hours.
The administrative benefits to educational institutions cannot be overlooked either, as online cloud-based testing platforms make designing, delivering, evaluating, and grading tests a quick process. The system can be easily scaled up or down to handle any increase or decrease in the number of test takers. More importantly, students get their results much before they would with offline tests and can accordingly begin the process of choosing the colleges, based on their grades.
The concept of cloud-based testing is gaining massive acceptance globally, and with the parallel adoption of online proctoring services, the examination and testing systems of the future will be strong enough to allow students to take tests remotely without the risk of cheating. The biggest benefit of online testing, however, is for the test providers, as it gives them a great deal of flexibility as far as creating, managing, and evaluating tests are concerned.
We all are yearning for a system that instills our faith in exams. Quite clearly we are losing our confidence in the current pen-paper assessments, which appears to be no longer fit.