63 pc of educational institutions for hybrid route to conduct exams: Report

With the coronavirus pandemic continuing to impact the education sector, a report has shown that 63 per cent of institutions across the world, including in India, are for the hybrid route for conducting examinations.

Though the pandemic has impacted the education sector and examinations have moved towards the digital ecosystem in the past 15 months, but 63 per cent of those surveyed said they would conduct exams the hybrid way, a mix of both offline and online, according to Mercer Mettl’s ‘State of Online Examinations Report 2021′.

Over 650 respondents, including deans, head of departments, professors and other influential decision-makers, from over 150 educational institutions across 18 countries, participated in the survey.

The numbers indicate a broad-based and swift acceptance of digital assessment tools, highlighting the education sector’s readiness to adopt and leverage technology to offer exams, the report noted.

Almost six out of 10 respondents (57 per cent) cite cheating as their primary concern in online examinations, suggesting that providing tests with integrity and in a sanitised environment takes precedence for academia over all else, it said.

This revelation is a direct message to service providers to enhance their platforms’ anti-cheating proficiencies in the virtual model, it added.

Universities and colleges have also posed a substantial wish list of features and services. For instance, almost seven out of 10 respondents expect better mechanisms from online exam service providers to clamp down on cheating to ensure cheating-free virtual examinations, followed by 62 per cent who expect enhanced ability to stage multiple types of exams (MCQs, descriptive and diagram type, among others).

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The numbers indicate that universities and colleges are keen on using online platforms and will offer directional cues to service providers to improve their offerings, it added.

Mercer Mettl CEO Siddhartha Gupta said education and examination practices have undergone tectonic shift in the past 15 months of the pandemic.

Leaders, equally in the education and edutech sectors, must ensure mainstreaming tech adoption and insulate the education ecosystem from the current and unforeseen disruptions, he added.