EdTech industry is escalating and as per predictions by 2020, the investments are supposed to reach a level of 252 billion dollars with a growth of 17% year on year.
Deemed edtech start-ups and the newbies in the league are disrupting the education industry by proposing solutions that are catalyst for future reforms in the education industry. Also, one cannot deny the fact that development in the education sector has a direct bearing with the continuous technological innovation we see around.
Right now, out of the many reforms taking place in the education space, the prominent reform has been that of a shift towards digital literacy. And that’s exactly why we see much emphasis being laid upon digital fluency. It is seen as a life skill for the young people and efforts must be to ensure that they have a strong grip over the skills and knowledge to help them engage in an increasingly digital world.
Just as teachers are focusing on to including curriculum based learning through digital, similarly the same efforts should be to bring disruption into the examination and grading process and thus how the focus on digital exams arises. This focus is much needed as it would help in bringing a parity to the process of change in education and convert the old stressed out, torturous examination process into a modern hassle-free process.
Given below are 5 best reasons why educators need to lay emphasis and focus on digital exams over traditional method of examination.
1. Digital Exams Are Flexible
It is expected out of the millennial to move and do several things at the same time. Further, psychologically too, it has been found that students perform best when left without any pressure be it mental or that of physical location because 96% students feel strained the moment they enter the examination hall. But when they work in a clam environment they can easily organize their agendas.
2. Assure Legitimacy to Online Courses & Institutions
If digital exams are made secure it would give much legitimacy to the whole process as then it would not be too easy to cheat. Most of the online courses like that of MOOCs or Moodle courses is not 100% recognized till date as they could not come up with a cheat-proof digital exam.
3. Saves Time
For the teachers it’s not easy to conduct exam and evaluate at one go. Hence, for the teachers time and flexibility are two important gifts. We say so because it helps the teachers to work on students’ papers and their lessons at their convenient place and at ease. There is hardly any risk of losing copies or carrying a bulk of sheets wherever they go. Plus when teachers need to centralize the data, it gets much easier for them to do so into one solution which they can access both online and offline.
4. Easy For Educators to Collaborate
By using digital exam programs, it gets easier for the teachers to openly collaborate on the exams and also while they are creating the coursework. It gives the teachers the flexibility to talk with the other teachers to work together, use the data they have obtained to get back better insights or understand on how they could improve and excel in their profession. In addition, when the data gets digitized into a central solution, it actually saves time and acts as a game changer for the institution as they can refer to those data as and when required to work towards improvisation of the assessment systems.
5. It’s Ecological Hence Environment Friendly
Paper consumption has a significant impact on the environment that includes- deforestation and air and water pollution. When exams are paperless, it is more of a sustainable solution for schools as they contribute towards leaving an eco-footprint.
Thus we see giving a focus on digital exams would be immensely beneficial for not just the teachers bit students too as they would be able to perform in a stress free environment. So the sooner it is introduced in the system, the better it is for the institution as a whole. We completely understanding that it is indeed challenging to introduce a new change but once done, it is set to help the future generation grow up as digital nerds and that’s the key of 21’st century learning.
So what do you think on it? Do you agree with us or differ with our opinion, let us know your feedback through your comments.