Abstract:

Worldwide and also in Europe, online proctored exams have already gained increasing attention before the pandemic situation. Therefore, an innovative project "Remote Exams" started in the fall of 2018 at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in order to explore suitable usage scenarios and to conduct pilot applications. Starting in summer semester 2020 and based on the project knowledge and concepts now available at TUM, online proctored exams were implemented as a possible exam option after a short, intensive roll-out preparation in order to maintain the opportunity for students to conduct exams at all during the Covid pandemic.

During the following semesters, an optional survey was offered for the examinees via questionnaire in all exams with automatic proctoring as accompanying research. This survey included closed and also open questions that covered different aspects such as "Experiences made", "Perception of proctoring", "Information available", "Technical problems", "Data protection", "Desired exam variant" or "Overall assessment of the exam form". In addition, the participants were also asked to give their opinion on advantages and disadvantages from their point of view in the form of open questions.

After a total of four evaluated "Covid-19 Semesters" (summer semester 2020 through winter semester 2021/22) and with cumulative returns of up to 800 completed questionnaires in some semesters, there is evidence of certain developments and changes in perception among students over time: Overall, the exam form was well to very well accepted. On average, significantly more than 90% of participants chose the "at home" exam option instead of the alternative "in the lecture hall" exam. Technical problems occurred only sporadically. The possibility of cheating is considered to be more difficult than in other forms of examination.

In addition to the quantitative evaluation of the closed questions the aforementioned advantages and disadvantages from the students’ perspectives were quantified by a content analysis. The findings over four semesters give a deep insight into the current TUM students’ attitude towards online proctored exams, which are still strongly discussed in Germany: The desire for purely lecture hall examinations weakened during the study period and the disadvantages receded more into the background. At the same time, some examinees felt the fear of unexpected disruption during the exam at home. Other students also missed the inspiring and concentration-enhancing element of a lecture hall exam, where many like-minded examinees are trying to master the exam together. Perceived fear of being unjustly accused of cheating increased significantly over the course of semesters.

Presentation at the INTED 2023:
After a short introduction, the presentation at INTED 2023 will go into the most important concepts implemented at TUM regarding online proctored exams and in the following will show an overview of how the exam numbers have developed over the four evaluated Covid-19 semesters. The results of the closed questions and the open questions from the survey will then be presented and explained in detail. Moreover, the conclusions drawn from this will be discussed, as well as potential tendencies that the evaluations show. Finally, the presentation will result in an outlook on the current development of online examinations at TUM as well as considerations for further developments in the post-Covid period.

Keywords:

Online Proctored Exams, Examination Evaluation, Experiences of the Examinees.