Abstract:

For educationalists, Covid-19 brought about not only new formats of teaching/learning process at the scale never seen before but also the difficulty to assess students’ knowledge, first of all, because new learning formats created new environments for students to study and take exams, which oftentimes assist them to sail through exams. With this consideration in mind, we tried to adjust the format of an exam so that it could exclude any kind of cheating and reveal students’ real knowledge in its pure form, as it were. These adjustments include but are not confined to the following steps:

1) Adjustment of the examination materials and time preparation: an article from an original newspaper of around 6,000 symbols (on a wide range of topics) assigned for a 15-minutes preparation in class, was shortened to a screen page article. A student, observed by the examiners on the screen, had 2-3 minutes for preparation in front of the computer, which didn’t allow students to take advantage of any gadgets or assistance from outside, and really gave the examiners the opportunity to adequately assess students’ skills and knowledge of the subject. A screen adaptation of examination materials can apply in order to assess both language skills and professional knowledge (in journalism, sociology or public relations).
2) Adjustment of examination assignments: newspaper or online articles in the field of profession (which require 10-15 minutes of students’ preparation time) were replaced by quotations from famous and highly esteemed professionals. On the screen, students were offered three quotations two of which had to be commented on. Students had less than a minute for preparation. This format proved to work a treat and is used now even for offline exams.
3) Written tests were replaced by oral assignments – either in the form of translation from one language to another on the studied material, or in the form of different assignments checking students’ knowledge of grammar, collocation etc. This adjustment requires more effort on the part of a professor to customize and personalize all assignments, as all students have their own examination materials.
4) Use of portfolio at the exam is another efficient method of testing students’ knowledge, which proved effective in online/offline exams. Portfolio is a file of different assignments carried out during the semester. Any of the assignments can become the topic for discussion at the exam, which enables to reveal the quality of professional training of a students and the command of professional language. To this end, a professor prepares questions for each student in advance thus assessing students’ professional knowledge in the field of their specialization.

The reassessment of students’ knowledge is based first of all on the adaptation of examination materials to one screen page, limitation of time preparation and reconsideration of assignments at the exam to exclude any possibility for students to cheat. Creative assignments and the analysis of portfolio proved to adequately reflect students’ knowledge in the field of their profession and language proficiency, and therefore can be seen as another step forward in our teaching’/learning process and obtaining knowledge at large.

Keywords:

Assessment system, shift in assessment, oral assessment, personalized approach, time-limited written assessment.