Journalism for Social Change Project: Online Exams

Are online exams changing the student experience? 

This is the third in our series of student articles written as part of GO Justice’s Journalism for Social Change Project. The initiative was designed to support students interested in social justice to develop their journalistic writing skills and create a finished piece of writing for publication. In this article, LLB student Mustafa Mamajee discusses the topic of online exams and the move by many universities back to in-person assessments.

By Mustafa Mamajee

As we get further from the pandemic, online exams are starting to become a remnant in a post-COVID world. Many universities have started moving back to in-person exams and some professionals have even called for online exams to be ‘binned’ as AI’s claws penetrate every facet of life. But it is students who sit exams, and their opinions are often overlooked.   

Just last year, the University of Glasgow announced a sudden move to in-person exams for Life Sciences students, who were not consulted and many of whom had not sat an in-person exam in a long time. The announcement was met with fierce criticism as students complained about the harm this would cause them. The controversy showed how important it is to ask students how they feel. What have their experiences been? Are online exams a better fit in an increasingly technologically driven world? Are in-person exams testing the right skills?  

I tried to do just that by asking a range of students. All but one preferred online exams and it isn’t hard to see why: they all felt online exams were less stressful.   

Ria*, a third year student at Glasgow University, told me there were many different points at which an in-person exam can be unnecessarily stressful. First there’s the travelling – either you leave on time and risk Glasgow’s public transport letting you down once again, or you leave very early and prolong your suffering. Then come the pre-exam jitters. Waiting outside the exam hall and hearing someone from your cohort mention a piece of information you are unfamiliar with doesn’t help to soothe the nerves. Masters student Kristina agreed: she told me that during her undergraduate Accounting and Finance degree at Glasgow University, she found in-person exams stressful because of pressure from everyone studying while she “want[ed] it to be all over".   

"The large number of people sitting in an exam hall can be very distracting - other people’s actions can put you off from focusing on your work and any little noise can be distracting," Hamad, a third-year student, noted. "There are [fewer] distractions when doing it from the comfort of your own home”.   

Eric*, a fourth year student affirmed this and spoke about the greater accessibility that online exams provide. He recalled being ill during an exam period, resulting in a sick bowl being placed strategically next to his desk – something that would not have been possible in an in-person exam and would have meant having to do a resit exam for that course.    

I remember when I first realised at the beginning of my degree that my exams were going to be online. My aversion to memorising was being validated. It felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Gone were the days of incessant making and reading of flashcards; to this day I have the 2700 I made during my A-levels. No more I thought - I am free.   

All the students I spoke to felt in-person exams were a memory test and that online exams, by contrast, allowed students to commit more to the actual understanding of a subject and to go in-depth with analysis. Hussein, a law student at Southampton University, felt online exams lent themselves to making someone a better thinker, rather than being a test of who remembers the law better.  

Alexander*, a first-year law student, was part of the first cohort of law students to sit in-person exams after they were reintroduced. Initially he was nervous, because of issues with his hands - but the Disability Service issued him a laptop, which eased some anxiety. Part of his revision strategy was to memorise his Contract notes like a song, singing the verses quietly to himself during the exam. But afterwards he realised the main question he’d been asking himself was, do I remember this? And not, do I understand it?  

For Kristina, though, years of in-person exams have left her with a strong preference for them over online assessments. She’s always done it that way, she told me, and she’s developed revision techniques that work for that format of exam.   

Of course, in discussions about university assessments, there’s an elephant in the room: cheating. Online exams make it significantly easier to cheat and a 2022 survey of 900 undergraduate students found that 52% knew someone who had done so. The students I spoke to recognised this: Eric told me people in his year had joked about using ChatGPT, and Kristina said she knew students who had arranged to sit in a room together to complete an online exam, discussing each question, distributing tasks, and checking each other’s work (some were ultimately caught because of similarities in answers). Ria recounted even more serious cases, of students paying up to £300 for online services where a person abroad completes an online exam paper on their behalf. And in 2020, there were reports of an Edinburgh University law student being offered £1,000 to sit someone else’s online exam.   

But aren’t in-person exams an important part of the student experience? Those I spoke to didn’t think so. Online exams can lead to an anti-climactic end, said Eric, but that doesn’t matter so much when other events like Balls and graduation itself cultivate the same feeling. In-person exams aren’t worth keeping for the experience alone, he said, and often that experience is an unpleasant one anyway: he spoke about a friend in Veterinary Medicine who sat an in-person exam where an academic integrity issue arose that meant students were not allowed to leave and were penned in the exam hall for seven hours - no lunch and no phone.   

Of course, most of us go to university to set us on the path to a future career. Do online exams have an impact on this as well? On the one hand, Eric believes completely that online exams better prepare you for a career as a legal professional. But Kristina felt those in accredited degrees should be taking in-person exams despite the possibility of increased stress levels.  

Private Law Professor Janeen Carruthers has worked at Glasgow University for 25 years and was also a trainee/practising solicitor for 3 years. For her, while online exams may lessen students’ stress levels, this may mean that they are not prepared for the workplace: the workplace is stressful, and most jobs require in-person, face-to-face meetings. Additionally, mechanisms available to students sitting online exams - like automatic extensions - will not be there when they embark on a career, she said.  

Regardless of where you stand on in-person versus online exams, most of us can sympathise with Husein’s answer when I asked him what in-person exams might contribute to the student experience. The thought of an exam, he said jokingly, “makes your hair fall out.”  

*names have been changed