Breaking Down Barriers: The Role Of Technology In Providing Equitable Assessments And Exams
One of the biggest challenges in today’s world is providing equitable assessments and exams to students, regardless of their location and socioeconomic backgrounds. Traditional assessment methods have been criticised for being culturally biased and unfair to students who face language and learning barriers.
With the advent of technology, the education sector has been transformed, and innovative online assessment technology has emerged as a game-changer for providing equitable assessments and exams.
In this blog, we will discuss the role of technology in breaking down barriers to education and how businesses and educational institutions can leverage online assessment technology to provide equitable assessments to all students.
Busting the Exam Centre Myth
In traditional assessment methods, students were required to appear for exams at pre-defined exam centres. This approach not only created barriers for students who could not reach the exam centre due to location but also created a favourable ground for malpractices like cheating.
Online assessment technology has removed these barriers by allowing students to take the exam from any location. The online proctoring feature of assessment software ensures the integrity of the exam by monitoring the students through their device’s webcam and microphone.
Levelling the Field
One of the biggest advantages of online assessment technology is that it levels the playing field for students from diverse backgrounds.
For instance, students with disabilities can use assistive technology such as screen readers or enlarged fonts. Similarly, students from a non-English speaking background can use the language translation feature to read the exam questions in their preferred language.
These accommodations can be set up in advance, ensuring that every student is assessed on the same grounds, regardless of their background.
Creating Equitable Assessments
A common criticism of traditional assessment methods is that they are culturally biased. Many exams include questions that require cultural knowledge that may not be familiar to some students. This creates an unfair situation for such students as they are assessed on their cultural knowledge as opposed to their academic abilities.
But online assessment technology allows for customisable assessments, ensuring that the assessment questions are culturally and socio-economically sensitive, and every student is assessed on the same academic knowledge.
Saving Time And Resources
Traditional assessment methods are not only costly but also time-consuming for both students and examiners. For instance, written exams require invigilators, and the exam papers need to be transported physically to the examination centre for assessment. Furthermore, some faculties have to spend significant time composing the exams, creating the answer sheets, and grading the exams.
Online assessment technology can help faculty members focus their efforts on more significant academic tasks by automating the exam process, including grading.
Data-Driven Insights
Innovative online assessment technology not only ensures fair evaluation but also provides valuable insights into a student’s learning abilities. Through tracking response times, accuracy, and time taken to answer questions, businesses and educational institutions can generate data-driven metrics from the software used.
These metrics reveal where the student needs more support and allow faculty members to customise their teaching styles accordingly, catering to individual student needs.
In Summary
Online assessment technology has revolutionised assessment methods in the education sector. It has brought about equitable assessments and exams for students from all walks of life, regardless of their location, language barriers, culture, socio-economic status, and disability.
Educational institutions and businesses must leverage the benefits of online assessment software to overcome traditional assessment barriers and provide every student with an equitable education. By doing so, we can build a fairer and more inclusive education system, which ensures that every student is assessed on their academic abilities.
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