. Write a letter to the principal informing about the complications faced during
online exams.
Answers
Answer:
Create Unnecessary Stress:
During a pandemic, among the absolute top priorities of every college and university should be to avoid contributing to any unnecessary stress for our students. I'd argue that this is true even in non-global pandemic times, but we save that debate for later.
Timed exams create stress. Not for every student and every exam. But enough students in enough exams.
Timed exams created stress, even if everything else in the test-taking environment is normal and supportive. Nothing in our students'students' test-taking environment is normal and supportive nowadays.
A stressed-out brain does not learn. Even with all the evidence from learning science, we in higher ed have not been able to let go of the myth that a little bit of stress is good for learning. It is not.
Stress and anxiety can push up short-term performance (as measured in test scores) but is horrible for long-term retention.
How is your home bandwidth? With six laptops competing for bandwidth in my house, not to mention every neighbor also on the internet all day, my bandwidth sometimes sucks. And we the top Comcast tier.
How are you surviving with remote work and schooling if you are on DSL, cellular, or satellite?
Combine iffy home bandwidth with the performance challenges that Canvas, Blackboard, D2L, and other learning management platforms have been experiencing as a result of massively heightened usage. The LMS providers seem to be doing a decent job of scaling their services to meet demand, but reports of platform sluggishness are widespread.
With timed online exams, particularly exams that only show a single question on a page, bandwidth and other performance issues are deadly for the test-taker. Can you imagine your exam time ticking down as you wait for the questions to load?