Top 6 Platforms to Conduct Online Exams
In the current digital age, learning has also become mainly online. Classes, assignments, and exams can now all be found on digital platforms. It’s therefore important to have reliable exam software to help you manage exams and tests. Most platforms are available for free or at a fee and offer everything from exam formats to proctoring to prevent exam cheating, to grading and analysis of the results. Some platforms also offer certifications that you can either custom make or get on the platform.
Here are the top 6 platforms you can conduct your online exams on:
- Synap
- Creating your online exam
- Delivering your online exams
- Monitor your exam
- Grading your exam
- Testinvite
- Evaluating learning objectives
- Proctoring your exams
- Provide large-scale assessments
- Get reports and analytics
- Classtime
- Student assessment platform
- Teaching resources
- Enhance classroom activities
- USATestprep
- Assessments and practice
- Reporting and training resources
- Advanced features of USATestprep
- ExamOnline
- Managing registration
- Administer your online exams
- Create online certifications
- ExamBuilder
- Exams
- Reports
- Certificates
With several awards and being one of the most highly ranked online platforms, Synap enables institutions to create, schedule, monitor, and grade exams securely. The types of questions allowed on this platform include multiple-choice questions (MCQs), essays, case studies, and math problems. Synap's platform also has proctoring services that help administer a cheating-free environment for exams.
The following are some of the functions you can get from Synap;
Synap has various tools that can help you create different exam formats depending on your preference. The platform has authoring tools to help you develop your questions, this way, you can have question formats that suit your style. You can also use the available templates to help you upload said questions. There is no limit to the number of questions you can put in your exam. Synap also allows you to create question banks, i.e., create a topic, subtopic, and unique questions customized for each user.
Synap also allows you to schedule time for your exam. This means you can upload the questions on the site earlier and schedule a time when the exam will be accessible to the users. Once scheduled, the platform generates a secure link that you can share directly with the users or you can input their emails and have the platform share it with them. The platform also allows you to set specific instructions about when and how a user can attempt the exam. For instance, your instructions can give the student 1,2, or 3 attempts after which they cannot access the exam again.
Once you have shared the exam links with the students, the platform allows you to monitor how each user interacts with the platform. You can access the student's screen and webcam to ensure that students are not using other tabs to cheat on the exam. Since the exam is online and difficult to determine whether students are engaging in cheating or not, you can set it up such that you get flags in case a student moves from the tab with the exam questions to another. Synap also provides footage from webcams that you can review in case of any suspicious activity.
When creating or uploading your exam, you can create instructions on how the exam will be graded. You can indicate how many marks each section will carry and how the platform should grade any unanswered and incorrect questions. Synap has an online marking tool that you can use to grade your exam. The platform also allows you to create resits with a limit on how many times a student can re-attempt the exam. You can also get branded certificates from the platform using Synap's templates or by custom-making your own.
Testinvite is a cloud-based software that allows you to create your exams, proctor them to prevent cheating, and evaluate and review the answers. It will enable you to include course objectives and provides feedback on how well the learning objectives have been achieved based on exam results. It does this by providing you with reports and analytics based on the examination results.
Here are the unique features of a Test invite:
Testinvite allows you to indicate the course's learning objectives and expected outcomes. You can also tie this to the exam questions and evaluate the success of the learning from the feedback provided by the platform. Whether your objectives were to ensure students can recall, understand, or apply concepts, you can test this from the questions created on the platform. Multiple-choice questions and written definitions can determine how well students remember the concepts taught. Essays can help evaluate how well students have understood topics, and you can use mathematical problems to check how well students can apply concepts learned.
Testinvite has anti-cheating technology that will allow you to proctor your exams with ease. The platform achieves this by locking the screen to prevent students from switching to another tab, restricting copy-pasting, and also by keeping track of violations that may occur throughout exam-taking. Testinvite records the candidate's screen and webcam, which helps you as the examiner invigilate the exam online. You can set a time limit for the exams, which automatically ends the exam once it's met. To prevent cheating, the system also allows you to shuffle the questions to different candidates, which means that question 1 for candidate A would be question 15 for candidate B.
Testinvite allows for large-scale assessment of exams. This means you can simultaneously deliver, administer, monitor, and proctor exams for many students. Unlike most platforms that may crash if many people log in at once, Testinvite is designed to handle large-scale assessments at once. This makes the exam process easier, faster, and very efficient. It also means that you can get the results of the exams at once and can therefore do the necessary analytics against the set learning objectives.
Testinvite can help you track exam scores, allowing you to evaluate if they have met the learning objectives. You can determine how different sections of the exam performed, which gives you insight into how and where to improve. The results of the exam can be used to find out the strengths and weaknesses of students. You can share the reports generated by the platform with the candidates in the form of feedback so that they can evaluate how well they are doing. For further analysis, you can export the reports into files outside the platform.
This online exam platform allows you to create your questions or find them in their library for administration to the students. Candidates can then gain access through a code and attempt the exam. It allows you to schedule the exam, grade it, and get feedback on the different questions and sections.
Below are the unique features of Classtime;
Classtime provides an overview of the student's answers and performances in the test or exam. That way, you can track the performance at a glance. The platform also offers real-time responses to the questions, which means that the students can easily participate in the test or exam from any device with the Internet. It also has a grading system you can set up while uploading the questions. It is activated by simply assigning the specific points to the questions, allowing the system to grade the exam automatically once they upload the answers. You can also generate results, which you can export and share with the students.
Other than uploading your exam to the platform, Classtime has a questions library that can provide you with exam questions and answers. This makes teaching easier, especially in cases where you do not have enough time to set the exam. The questions in the library are standardized by experts to ensure they align with the curriculums used in schools. Classtime has nine question types you can employ, i.e., multiple choice, highlight text, hot spot, checkboxes, free text answer, sorter, and true or false questions. The platform also allows you to incorporate images and YouTube videos in your exam questions to enrich said questions and incorporate audio-visual learning into the classroom.
Classtime helps you, as the instructor, create challenges in the digital classroom to make the class more engaging. Each student can attempt these challenges on their device or as a collaborative action in groups. This is meant as a move away from the monotonous traditional ways of teaching into more modern, engaging methods. You can present these challenges as narratives in the classroom with a problem at the end of the narrative to be solved. For instance, the instructor can narrate the subject of pollution with the example of a town, and students are asked to present ideas on fighting said pollution. This ensures that learning is not just a passive activity but one where each student participates. It also promotes critical thinking.
USATestprep is a platform used for exam preparation and curriculum resources by teachers at all levels. It’s a teacher-designed platform that can be used to supplement the curriculum and that has instructions to help students succeed. It is useful from elementary school to high school. The user interface for USATestprep is very easy to use which makes it easier for students to find the class resources and work on the tests and exams uploaded.
Here's what's included in the platform:
The program offers multiple-choice, multi-answer, and two-part questions that you can write on your own or pre-build into the platform. It allows the teacher to compare and print assessment options from the site. The technology options on the site also allow for other forms of testing like paragraph completion, select-text, and matching. Students can either practice with teacher-driven assessments or use independent practice tests available on the platform. The practice option in the program allows students to sharpen their skills on the subject, test themselves, and improve their exam-taking skills. This online platform is highly recommended for schools looking to improve students’ understanding of various concepts.
USATestprep provides different types of reports for both teachers and students. The platform has a grade book that shows the different grades earned over time by the student, which you can also download as a monthly progress report. These reports are essential in giving feedback to the teacher on how well the subject is being understood and the areas that are not doing well. The platform also offers classroom resources like worksheets, flashcards, and puzzles to further help with the learning of the subject. The platform has an automatic grading system that eases the work and allows for faster analytics of exam results.
USATestprep platform also has advanced features such as Spanish translation, a desmos calculator, and an answer elimination option. The platform also offers a random question order option to eliminate cheating in the exam. As for support, teachers can be trained using articles and videos that are available on the platform and the weekly live sessions conducted therein. Custom training is available in case of specialized needs from the teachers or the district, though charges may apply for this. Other advanced features include classroom and curriculum management as well as question libraries to ease the administration of exams.
This online examination platform is designed to conduct online examinations, entrance exams, and skill assessments. ExamOnline allows you to manage your exams from their administration, scoring, and reporting. This platform is unique in that, students can register on the platform and get notifications on exams via SMS or email.
Here are the other features of ExamOnline.
For easier administration of the exam and assigning of grades, ExamOnline allows students and faculty to register on the platform. Self-registration by students is very efficient and saves on costs for the faculty. Students can then get notifications via email or SMS on upcoming exams and scores. You can configure the platform to your needs to collect specific data from the users. For example, candidate registration numbers, IDs, and names as needed. This information is necessary for the online certifications created on the platform. All the data input into ExamOnline is safe and remains confidential.
ExamOnline also allows you to create and administer online exams. It is possible to communicate updates to the candidates with the email and SMS features on the platform. The platform's ease of use allows the examinees to learn easier and for the exam administration to be easily monitored. The ExamOnline platform is also scalable, meaning there is no limit to the number of students to whom the exam is administered. It is also very easy to configure exams on the platform. ExamOnline also has anti-cheating technology, which can block navigation from the exam page or randomize the questions to prevent cheating among the students.
ExamOnline also has certification software that allows you to create certifications for your examinees. The certification software prevents cheating by employing several tools i.e., keyboard lock, disabled shortcut keys, and the issuance of different questions for each candidate. Once the exam is done, the examiner gets the results immediately. You can create a certificate using the templates available on the platform or upload a custom-made one. The forum can then send the certificate to the candidates who passed the exam via the email they had used to register for the exam. The certification software is automatic, which saves you time.
ExamBuilder is a platform that has been around for over 20 years. It has templates for certification and practice exams, observational assessments, and high-stakes. The platform also allows the uploading of Pdfs and videos for training before the candidates can attempt the exam. With this platform, you can also create groups among the students to help you manage them better and also to help with the comparison of results.
The features of ExamBuilder include:
ExamBuilder allows for different types of exam questions, including multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and multiple select. The software is very easy to use and will enable you to set time limits for the exam, create access codes, and randomize questions to prevent cheating. It also allows for scheduling and auto-retakes, where candidates can automatically retake the exam if they fail. ExamBuilder also offers some post-exam tools that can provide feedback to students on failed or passed exams, certificates of completion, and an analysis of the areas of strength and weakness. The platform also has multi-lingual support, which is important for mixed languages.
ExamBuilder provides various real-time reports for the users of the software. The software can show reports on the following; how many questions students answered correctly and incorrectly, the difficulty level of each question and section, how many students failed to take the exam, students who passed the exam, and an aggregate of all the exams taken during a specific period, among others. The platform also shows how much time the candidates spent on the uploaded training videos and PDFs, which can inform future decision-making on the curriculum. The training materials on the platform allow you to target various student demographics based on the levels of understanding reported. All the reports provided can help the instructor identify gaps in the curriculum and strategize on how to cover them.
ExamBuilder also provides certificates on successful completion of the exams. The auto-generated certificates indicate the name of the candidate, the award name/name of the unit tested, and the date of issuance of the certificate. Other than auto-generated certificates, you can also upload PDF files on the platform to get a suitable custom certificate. The certificates are available on the forum, where the students can download them when needed. Creating and issuing certificates on the platform is a very easy-to-follow process and can be automated for one or multiple exams.
Conclusion
Online platforms ease the creation, administration, and grading of online exams. Choosing the best platform is important to ensure that you get reliable results.