Are Online Tests Reliable For Finals Week?

By Daniel Kong

Sunny Hills High School

After the COVID-19 outbreak, mortality rates rose. Families couldn’t leave their homes. Businesses shut down. Jobs were lost. The economy was in shambles. However, teachers faced another issue. With schools transitioning to online distance learning, a top priority for teachers became finding a way to effectively test their students.

Since schools were moved online, teachers were able to test students online. As online testing has several benefits, it helps teachers accurately assess students’ levels of specific topics.

One of the biggest benefits that have resulted from online tests is the reduced amount of stress. Several studies have proven that stress has a detrimental effect on students in high school. According to The Washington Post, “43 percent [of 4,317 California high schoolers] listed tests as a primary stressor.” Not to mention, stress “leads to “headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss, and stomach problems” as well as a lack of balance in their lives.” But through online open-note tests, students can study general concepts knowing that they can use their notes on the test so they won’t have to lose sleep studying for every single small detail. And for detail-oriented students, they can add more information in their notes, which provides a reliable source of information that they can look back on during the test.

Another benefit of online assessments is the ability to test students on a wider variety of topics. Since online tests have to be taken at home, teachers have made them open-note. Because of this, teachers now have the freedom to test their students on specific concepts and details. Teachers can test their students on terms, applications, structures, equations, and formulas, all in one test. The concern of searching for every single question in the notes is bound to rise up, but teachers have come up with creative ways to tackle that issue.

There is currently no other alternative to testing because of the unfortunate pandemic. With the COVID-19 outbreak, students are hesitant to come back to school in-person and the majority of students decide to stick to distance learning for the time being. This being the case, the only possible option for teachers to test their students is through reliable online platforms such as Google Forms, GoFormative, and Quizizz.

As teachers use these online platforms to test their students, easy access to the internet has been a major flaw in online testing. But measures can be taken to prevent the success of these cheaters’ actions.

An effective method that teachers use to prevent cheating during tests would be taking advantage of the video call features. Unmuting microphones would come into use as students have often been caught calling their classmates for help during tests.

Cheating has become easier, but teachers would rather spend their time worrying about their health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. The benefits that come with online testing simply outweigh the problem of cheating with so many different ways of preventing it.